Meditation 892
Lies to build the flock up.
by: John Tyrrell
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It was reported that a Newville, PA pastor had been exposed for claiming to have been a Navy SEAL. Jim Moats had been making the claim for about five years and had even worn a SEAL medal around town. His exposure came about as a result of being interviewed by his local newspaper about SEAL training after the SEALs took care of bin Laden. The trouble was that this brought him to the attention of genuine retired SEALs who had a little trouble with the details of his story.
Retired SEAL Don Shipley was quoted as saying:
"We deal with these guys all the time, especially the clergy. It's amazing how many of the clergy are involved in those lies to build that flock up." (emphasis added.)
This reminded me of the tale of George DuPre who claimed to have been in Special Operations during WWII. His story was that while working with the French Resistance, he had been captured by the Gestapo and tortured. His faith in God enabled him to withstand the torture. Postwar, he used his supposed WWII experience to lecture boy scout troops across Canada for years on the value of faith. He would say "You can't have guts without God."
The journalist Quentin Reynolds was so impressed by DuPre's story, he wrote a book, The Man Who Wouldn't Talk, which was published in 1953, and subsequently a condensed version appeared in Reader's Digest.
And that's when the roof fell in on Mr. DuPre. The wider readership of the Reader's Digest ensured that the story came to the attention of some of those who had actually served with him in the war. While DuPre had actually been in an intelligence unit, his service was in England and Canada only.
As for his lesson that faith enables a person to handle difficulties in life, even torture? On being exposed, DuPre suffered a nervous collapse.
These two incidents point back to what I wrote back in 2002 in Meditation 82 - Lying about "The Truth?"
They claim to be preaching The Truth. Why do so many of them need to lie to communicate their particular god's truth?
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