Posted on 01/24/2018 6:59:03 AM PST by Kaslin
Nope. The abundant witness of the Founders was that a bible philosophy, which robustly stands for what I just outlined, is the only valid moral foundation for this constitution. Never ever confuse means with ends. It is literally glory of God or bust.
The founders of this country were able to separate their personal religious beliefs from their desire to create a government that is required to respect individual rights. Our government has legal obligation, it does not have moral obligations. Individuals have moral obligations.
With that said, if our society as a whole does not maintain some level of morality, it is very likely that our Constitution will ultimately fail, as it will also fail if our government fails to uphold its legal obligations.
The purpose of the act of slander and libel is to promote Mob Rule and motivate others to destroy the target finally provoking murder.
There MUST be serious punishment for this serious crime against another person to deter this tactic.
The pen IS mightier than the sword, and is a more deadly weapon.
False Witness should ALWAYS be punished most severely.
Libel and slander committed for profit, or for the destruction of the person in question, both require knowledge that the statements made are untrue. For “public figures”, I believe the standard includes a phrase like “actual malice”.
The issue with the last part of that standard is that the courts have made proving actual malice almost impossible.
Knowingly promoting falsehoods against a person, public or private, needs to remain illegal IMO. To do otherwise is to allow any scandalous pronouncement to unknowing recipients to destroy a person.
Let’s say I have a good reputation as a businessman, and I am working to secure a contract with a prospective client. A competitor, also desiring the contract, makes knowingly false statements alleging dishonesty on my part to the client, or in a way where the client hears about them second-hand. The client walks away, based on the known lie.
How can this scenario be interpreted that no harm is done? That is the issue - that a person may knowingly use lies to injure another person. Absent strong but balanced libel and slander laws, there is no recourse to solve the issue (being that physical confrontation would break other laws).
With loss of one’s reputation, careers, livelihoods and even friends and family can be lost.
...and lots of it. We need "Loser Pays" laws.
Read the end of it. Year of our Lord is in it.
You are like fish arguing that water is irrelevant to fish food. Leave that water then if you must. The consequences demonstrate how much the fish food is now worth.
Also witness the history that led to the compilation of the constitution. Of all people, Benjamin Franklin recommended prayer when negotiations came to an impasse. He reasoned that if a sparrow cannot fall apart from the will of the Father, how less likely that an empire would rise without His aid. And Franklin wasn’t what we might call a religion monger. The impasse thereupon broke.
Now perhaps a whole history worth of evidence does not move you and that is your choice. But it doesn’t excuse you from the real consequences of not being moved.
You have made no effort whatsoever to even try to understand the point I was making regarding the difference between our society and our government, so there is no further need for me to respond to your posts.
Your way leads to a theocratic government, which is most assuredly not what our founders envisioned.
You are shirking the effort — not I. You might try not lying and not misunderstanding and not setting up strawmen. You have something like Christianity Derangement Syndrome.
If you’d ever follow my history you would see how over and over I urge that the evangelist and not the politician is the capstone here. When the early colonists said No King But Jesus, did that confer your strawmanned theocracy? No. In fact read what George Washington the avowed Christian wrote to Jews. It wasn’t a religious harangue. It was remarkably like our modern Dispensational view.
Educate yourself and you will not criticize others with a small mind.
And to further clarify... A small mind of yours.
The libel and slander laws are fine.
What we need is “loser pays” to reduce
frivolous, blackmailing lawsuits.
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