Perjury: A Crime Against God?

From a moral perspective, what exactly is so very wrong with swearing falsely under oath? That is one of the questions raised by the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, on two counts of perjury-a crime that, if he's convicted of it or pleads guilty, could contribute to his spending 30 years in prison.

Certainly, the Bible finds something very serious indeed in such an oath, assuming it was taken in God's name. We are in Ten Commandments territory here-specifically (depending on how you number the items in the Decalogue), the Third Commandment: "You shall not take the Name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will not absolve anyone who takes His Name in vain" (Exodus 20:7).

The Ten Commandments doesn't say anything so terrifying about other big-ticket sins. There is no similar warning that God will not absolve the murderer, the adulterer, or the thief. Only the Third Commandment--which refers to messing with the awesomeness of God's Name in the context of an oath--carries such a dire warning that the sin, seemingly, cannot be forgiven.

On Friday, a federal grand jury in Washington charged Libby with other, related crimes as well: one count of obstruction of justice and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators. But it's the perjury charges that catch one's attention because of the curiously archaic nature of oaths--the gravity associated with them that derives from their essentially religious nature.

In a sense, Scooter Libby is being charged, before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, with a crime against God. To understand the seriousness of what Libby is accused of having done, you need to understand what a false oath is and what distinguishes it from other lies, of which the Bible takes a much different view.

Under such circumstances, the background to this story seems almost trivial, certainly underwhelming if we're talking about an unforgivable sin. The federally appointed special counsel in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who placed these charges before the grand jury, holds that Libby told a series of lies to FBI investigators and to the grand jury. The former lies (technically termed "false statements") were not under oath, while the latter ones (termed "perjury") were under oath. The alleged lies concerned conversations Libby reportedly had with journalists in which he, according to the indictment, attempted to discredit a critic of the Bush administration.

Dissing God
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