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January 26, 2006
Oprah, the Liberty Counsel and Bearing False Witness
by Faithful Progressive
Oprah Winfrey did something hard this week: she apologized for condoning a false impression about a book. This week, a small town Wisconsin school district asked the powerful Liberty Counsel and its right-wing Christian backers to do the same.
Ms. Winfrey apologized for being indifferent to the truth about an author's false memoir about his life as a drug user. James Frey acknowledged that he had embellished parts of the book, and he told Winfrey Thursday that "the same demons that fueled his addictions caused him to mischaracterize himself." As ABC News reports Winfrey phoned in her support for him and for the book, calling the allegations against Frey "much ado about nothing."...But Winfrey, who has been widely criticized, even by e-mailers on her Web site, for her apparent indifference to the controversy, said Thursday that she regretted making that call.
"I left the impression that the truth is not important," she said.
For People of the Book, of course, bearing false witness is always a matter of considerable importance. The Dodgeville School District asked some purported Christians and their legal advocacy group, the Liberty Counsel, to apologize for its lies about the school district's efforts at producing a holiday play. "The group threatened lawsuits and ignored the truth even after the school posted on its Web site an explanation of its program, the district charged in a letter to Liberty Counsel..."
As the Wisconsin State Journal reported Thursday, "Your dissemination of false and misleading information and your threats of specious and frivolous litigation resulted in enormous cost to the district. You have yet to present the facts either through a press release, one of your 'alerts' or through any other means. You used this red herring to attempt to collect money through the form of donations," the district's lawyer, Eileen A. Brownlee, wrote in a letter to Mathew D. Staver, president of the Liberty Counsel...
Diane Messer, Dodgeville superintendent, said the group never asked for a reply or for an explanation in its first letter, never checked its facts and even got its final statement wrong, when it issued a press release incorrectly claiming the school "dumps" a song, "Cold in the Night," and "returns" to "Silent Night."
Contrary to Liberty Counsel's information in a string of press releases, "From the beginning," wrote Messer to the group Dec. 13, "the program has included the singing of religious songs with their original lyrics. Yes, 'Silent Night' will be sung. 'Cold in the Night' will not be sung." Instead, that song was narrated.
Messer, in an interview Wednesday, said Liberty Counsel exploited incorrect information for a publicity advantage, disregarding the truth.
In one press release, Staver said the school district "intentionally mocks Christian Christmas songs." Comments like this were "what in part incensed our district and our School Board," said Messer. "We answered his question, he chose to frame it differently, focusing on 'Silent Night.' As a result, that is where he made his errors. That and . . . not verifying the facts of the matter.
"I am surprised that he has chosen this approach, since he is representing a Christian organization that certainly would uphold the Ten Commandments. He is not honoring the commandment that thou shalt not bear false witness."
In this case, the lies about an honorable school district have hurt the hard-working people of Dodgeville. Will the Liberty Counsel, and its zealous supporters in the clergy and at Fox News, follow Oprah Winfrey's lead? As a believer, I know that miracles can happen.
Posted by Faithful Progressive at January 26, 2006 10:56 PM
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