What does it mean when a leader lies?  It’s a question no one is asking. In 1959 President Eisenhower lied about the U-2 incident. 

Francis Gary Powers had been piloting his spy plane high over the Soviet Union when the Russians managed to shoot him down.  At first President Eisenhower denied that the United States was engaged in aerial espionage.  But when the Russians produced Powers, the president was forced to admit he had not told the truth.  As a boy I vividly recall how shocked the American people were that their president would lie to them.

I am sure that presidents had lied before.  And this one might be excused as a necessity of national security.  But it was a dumb thing to do.

Now here is President Obama.   For three years, as he sold the Affordable Care Act, the president assured the country hundreds of times, “If you like your health insurance policy, you can keep it.   If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”

Turns out it was all a lie.   Deliberate, premeditated, intentional, blatant: A lie.

Revelations from the Federal Record reveal what the president and those who wrote the law knew all along: Any change, however small--even a slight price adjustment—would invalidate one’s present health insurance policy, forcing the insurance company to drop that policy in order to conform to the provisions of Obama Care.

Millions of Americans now discover that their policies are being cancelled.  That forces them to the state exchanges to find health coverage at huge increases in cost.  Thousands of doctors are refusing to accept patients with Medicare or Obama Care coverage because government-stipulated payments don’t allow them to cover their costs.  Businesses face huge leaps in their insurance costs.  As a result many companies drop their health insurance benefit or cut back the number of their employees.  All of this anticipated by the authors of the law.  So the president told the lie.

Back to the question: What does it mean when a leader lies? 

It means that for whatever reason, that leader does not value truth.  It means he has no respect for those under his authority.  It indicates he is willing to exercise deceit and naked power to get what he wants. 

That kind of a leader is dangerous. 

In the 19th chapter of Leviticus Moses instructs the people of Israel about how a just and equitable society functions.  People must act toward each other with honesty.  And at the heart of it is this command: “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.” (v 11)  Society depends on trust.  And trust depends on truth-telling.

One of the reasons Jesus is revered and honored all over the world is that he said repeatedly, “I tell you the truth.”   Or, “Truly, truly I say to you.”  He said, “I am…the truth.” (John 14:6)  And he meant it.  He never once lied.

The contrast between Jesus and a leader who lies could not be greater.  One is a leader to trust with your life.  The other is one you dare not trust with your health—or anything else.

Dr. Rick Perrin is Chairman of the Board of World Reformed Fellowship and senior pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Cherry Hill NJ.  He writes a weekly blog called ReTHINK which may be accessed at www.rethinkingnews.wordpress.com. He may be contacted directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

President Obama's Lie Permalink Submitted by Samuel Logan on Sat, 2013-11-16 18:45

I suspect that my good friend (and boss!), Rick Perrin is correct in his analysis of the changes in our government's statements about the likely impact of "The Affordable Care Act." I probably would not have used the word "lie" but I have to admit that it is likely the most accurate word to use in this situation.  I would, however, like to suggest that what Rick mentioned in the second paragraph of his blog could use even more attention.  I was stunned when I first read Eric Alterman's devastating book, WHEN PRESIDENTS LIE: A HISTORY OF OFFICIAL DECEPTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.  Alterman chronicles repeated major distortions of the truth by occupants of the White House, both Democrats and Republicans.  In a sense, President Obama is just following a grand tradition of Presidential lying.  This, of course, does not excuse either the current President or his predecessors.  But it does suggest a context for the current situation and it does point even more strongly to the truth with which Rick concludes his blog. 

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President Obama's Lie Permalink Submitted by Fergus MacDonald on Tue, 2013-11-19 12:14

Sadly, lying as an indispensable element in the art of government has been with us for generations.  Frederick the Great affirmed it to be wrong, but necessary.  Writing in 1742, he said: 'I will not defend the art of government.  I will simply delineate the reasons which in my view compel princes to pursue a course in which deception and the misuse of power are accepted practice.'  Much more recently Sir Bernard Ingham, who served as Chief Press Secretary for Margaret Thatcher during her years as Prime Minister of the UK, publicly defended the right of governments to be 'economical with the truth.'  In the current debates in the UK and Scottish Parliaments on gay marriage, government ministers have assured Christians opposing the legislation that their rights will be respected despite almost certainly knowing that the European Court is very likely overrule such protections on appeal.  Governments of whatever party quickly learn to regard truth or falsehood as matters of ethical neutrality.  The fact that Barack Obama, George W Bush, David Cameron, Alex Salmond and virtually every government leader have themselves been deceived into believing that governments have a right to deceive the public is surely demonstrable evidence of the urgent need for Christians to develop and articulate a biblical worldview in the public square.  

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