March 23, 2008
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Easter
A Short-Lived Lie
Bible Verse for Good Friday: A meeting of all the religious leaders was called, and they decided to bribe the soldiers (Matthew 28:12).
Watergate, one of America's greatest
political scandals, led to the resignation of Richard Nixon and the
imprisonment of some of his top political aides. To protect the
president from impeachment, some of his assistants tried to create and
maintain a cover-up. It lasted only three weeks. Chuck Colson, one of
Nixon's most trusted aides, explains: "The first to crack was John
Dean. He went to prosecutors and offered to testify against the
President. After that, everyone started scrambling to protect himself.
… Some of the most powerful politicians in the world—and we couldn't
keep a lie for more than three weeks."While in prison for his role in Watergate, Colson
became a follower of Christ. What convinced him of the truth of
Christianity? The implausibility of the disciples doing what he and
Nixon's top aides couldn't do—successfully maintain a lie. These men
had everything to gain by maintaining their silence. The disciples and
earliest Christians apparently had nothing to gain by their
silence—only persecution, marginalization and, in many cases,
martyrdom. When Colson tries to persuade others of the veracity of the
disciples' claims to have seen the risen Christ, he starts with
Watergate. "The Watergate cover-up proves that 12 powerful men in
modern America couldn't keep a lie—and that 12 powerless men 2,000
years ago couldn't have been telling anything else but the truth."—J.P. Moreland in God Conversation
Adapted from The Passionate Journey (Regal, 2006) by permission.
Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Comments (2)
The premise is false. John Dean was the ONLY White House staffer who knew about the break-in. He authorized it, and it was the one promoting the cover-up. There is tape of Nixon saying that there is no political reason to break into the Democrat HQ, and that they (White House staff) should cooperate with the investigation by coming clean on anything and everything they knew. It was Dean who talked Nixon out of it. It's all on tape.
Dean lied to Nixon about not knowing about the break-in.
Dean lied to Congress about people inside the administration knowing about the break-in.
Dean lied to G. Gordon Liddy and the Watergate burglers by telling them John Mitchell authorized the break-in.
At every opportunity, Dean lied, lied, and lied. When presented with the opportunity over the years, Dean lied some more.
His dirty hands sent innocent men to prision, ruined careers, created a Constitutional imbalance which hasn't been righted to this day, unleashed a merciless and biased press corps, and created a distrust of government. What was his punishment for all this? He wasn't persecuted, marginalized, or martyred. He sold books, and was lionized by those with policy differences and personal grudges against Nixon. The biggest liar of the bunch got off and benefited at every turn, and is now being used to prove biblical lessons?!?
Incidentally, the break-in was a red herring. You can't cover up something of which you have no knowledge. There were some really important issues of separation of powers and executive priviledge which were lost during the witch hunt, which lasted a lot longer than three weeks. I think the three weeks is some number Colson cooked up of the events that unfolded after Dean's less than honest or accurate testimony before Congress.
How do you take back eprops? I don't know what they are, but it sounds stupid. I left it accidentally in my previous message.
Joe Mama
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