If there’s an anchor that runs beneath all honest journalism, all fair argument, all spiritual progress, it is this: tell the truth. Do not bear false witness.
On the surface, the commandment seems straightforward—a prohibition against overt lying, perjury, or slander. But as with so many of the divine laws, its application, and its neglect, ripple far beyond Sunday School or the courtroom.
Today, in our public discourse—on TV, in government hearings, in the pages and pixels that define our shared reality—the consequences of breaking this command have become not just personal, but profoundly civilizational.
When Journalism Forgets Its Mandate
One needs look no further than the recent congressional testimony of Katherine Maher, CEO of National Public Radio.
Questioned directly about whether she had, in the public forum of Twitter, accused America of being “addicted to white supremacy” and “believing in black plunder and white democracy,” Maher repeatedly danced around the truth.
Even when confronted with her own tweets, Maher denied, hedged, or attempted to recast her words. Caught red-handed, and before the eyes of a nation, a prominent leader in journalism bore false witness—not only against others, but, in a way, against herself and the very institution she helms.
This is not merely a partisan spectacle, or a case of “gotcha” politics.
It is symptomatic of how far the Fourth Estate has drifted from its sacred charge—to reflect, to inquire, to report, and to tell the truth. Instead, “what passes for truth in this country” is too often outrage, obfuscation, and the wielding of words as ideological weapons.
The deeper problem is not that Maher lied to Congress—it’s that the standard for truth has been eroded so thoroughly that such denials, even when patently false, can pass muster with large segments of the public and the elite.
The Divine Mirror—and What It Now Reflects
Contrast that with the scriptural vision offered by Bahá’u’lláh more than a century ago, from the Tablet to the Journalists:
“In this Day the secrets of the earth are laid bare before the eyes of men. The pages of swiftly-appearing newspapers are indeed the mirror of the world. … They are a mirror endowed with hearing, sight and speech. This is an amazing and potent phenomenon. However, it behooveth the writers thereof to be purged from the promptings of evil passions and desires and to be attired with the raiment of justice and equity. They should inquire into situations as much as possible and ascertain the facts, then set them down in writing.”
If only. Instead, as Mehrtash Olson and I explored in our inaugural Sunday morning “Spiritual Journalism” conversation, the “mirror” of our press has become warped—its surface clouded by an entanglement of incentives, partisanship, and the near total absence of meaningful accountability.
When our most celebrated journalists are not merely making mistakes but actively defending their deceptions, what hope is there for a society built on trust and shared reality?
The Anatomy of Bearing False Witness—Today
If you spend any time with the work of independent journalists, with whistleblowers, and with studies on today’s media, you see the rot: corporate money, government funding, and self-serving audience cultivation have replaced the prayerful pursuit of truth. As Mehrtash noted:
“Large corporate media organizations take money from businesses…from government. That’s going to create some sort of a conflict of interest and…self-censorship within the news organization that will prevent truth from getting to the public.”
And the public, conditioned to accept “truth” as whatever comes through their preferred echo chamber, is “largely unaware.” The ancient laws prohibiting false witness are no longer exceptions—they are, dare we say it, the very model for modern communication.
What Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain feared, we now see fulfilled: “If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed. If you don’t, you’re uninformed.”
The problem, as Mehrtash and I both noted, goes far beyond journalism.
It is endemic to science and medicine as well.
When even the chief editors of the world’s most prestigious medical journals today admit, “much of the scientific literature…may simply be untrue,”—is it any wonder our age is marked by suspicion, division, and despair?
Spiritual Standards for a Disintegrating Public Sphere
It is not enough to wring our hands or change the channel.
The challenge is to re-examine what it would look like if, as Baha’u’llah prescribes, our “writers” were, “purged from the promptings of evil passions and desires… attired with the raiment of justice and equity”?
It would mean, first, the basic fulfillment of the commandment: do not distort, exaggerate, or hide the truth. Do not bear false witness—not for power, not for outrage, not even for clicks.
It would also mean, as the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith insisted to members of his own community, that every movement for social good must remain, “absolutely non-political and non-subversive in every respect.” How far we have fallen when even the movements of remedy are built on slander and escalation, rather than on candor, reconciliation, and integrity.
Nor is this just systemic. It is personal. As Mehrtash quoted from Abdul-Baha, “God has given man the eye of investigation… ears… reason… [Man] is not intended to see through the eyes of another, hear through another’s ears, nor comprehend with another’s brain.”
We must each become witnesses—not only to events, but to meaning, to truth, to fairness. “By its aid,” Bahá’u’lláh wrote, “thou shalt see with thine own eyes, and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge, and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor.”
From Outrage to Reality—Reclaiming the Work
The ancient prohibition on bearing false witness is not simply about scandal and shame.
It is about the threat to the very possibility of a shared life—family, community, nation—when no one can be trusted to simply say what is. When, as we witnessed in the Maher hearing, a national leader will look power in the eye and swear the sky is green with no cost, it signals not merely the collapse of institutions, but the corrosion of conscience.
In this day, perhaps our most urgent spiritual commandment is not to “buy what they are selling.” To see not only independently, but with integrity. And when the mirror is so clouded, so distorted that you cannot even see your own reflection, to become a mirror yourself—to inquire, to listen, and, when necessary, to speak.
Join the Work of Spiritual Journalism
It is for this reason that we launched our new Sunday series—Spiritual Journalism—not as a nostalgia project, but as a living call to arms (and to open hearts).
Each week, we will peel back the layers of narrative, hype, and outright deception, seeking not only to diagnose but to heal the breach between word and reality.
There has never been a greater need for those willing to roll up sleeves, purify motives, and rebuild the cultural architecture of truth.
If this work stirs you, I invite you to join us:
- Subscribe and share these articles. This is a labor of love, but also of necessity. The more who read—and question—the narrative, the better our chances of restoring reality in a post-truth age.
- Invite others to do the same. Forward to friends, comment, raise objections—they, too, are needed.
- Upgrade to paid if you can. It enables us to reach deeper, to feature more voices, to keep this labor independent of the echo chambers we critique.
This is bigger than any single faith, or show, or story. It is about spiritual maturity, civic renewal, and the shared labor of recapturing what Baha’u’llah called “the best beloved of all things in My sight…justice.”
May we learn, together, not merely to demand truth from the world—but to become, each in our stations, witnesses worth believing.
With hope, and with you on the journey,
Wade
If this message resonates, pass it on. Together, let's see with our own eyes, hear with our own ears, and rediscover what it means to bear true witness—before the mirror cracks beyond repair.
