Kavanaugh or Ford: Who told the full truth and nothing but the truth?

Kavanaugh or Ford: Who told the full truth and nothing but the truth?

The battle leading up to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Oct. 6 confirmation left deep scars among Americans across the country.

A full-out “he said/she said” debate centered around sexual assault allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford from when they were teenagers, more than 30 years prior.

While the U.S. Senate ultimately voted 50 to 48 — almost entirely Republicans for and Democrats against — to confirm Kavanaugh as the 114thjustice, the discussions around the country did not stop with the swearing-in ceremony.

A nationwide survey conducted Oct. 11–14 found that most of the 1,152 adults participating in the survey agree a nominee’s professional credentials are important and many agree the nominee’s legal qualifications should be considered. A majority of those surveyed in The Associated Press—NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll also think a nominee’s personal history and character are important considerations in the process. The survey results were released Oct. 19 and have a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

As far as who was telling the truth, 60 percent of Republicans in the survey believe Kavanaugh was completely truthful in his testimony while 33 percent say he mostly told the truth. The “mostly” group said they thought he might be hiding something. Six percent of Republications surveyed believe he was mostly lying.

Democrats surveyed were basically the opposite in their opinions with 54 percent saying Kavanaugh was mostly lying and 4 percent saying he was telling the entire truth. Forty percent said that while he was hiding something, he was mostly truthful.

No matter who was telling the truth and who wasn’t, “adherence to biblical morality would have prevented this scandal altogether,” says Brent J. Schmidt, co-author of the new book “America Versus the Ten Commandments: Exploring One Nation’s Commitment to Biblical Morality.”

The Kavanaugh controversy showcased significant immorality, he explained. “Terrible acts of sexual assault and indecency happened then, or nasty instances of lying and defamation happened now.

“The Bible unapologetically condemns both lying and sexual misconduct. Specifically, the commandments ‘thou shalt not commit adultery’ and ‘thou shalt not bear false witness’ are relevant,” Schmidt said. “The Hebrew noun rea, as found in the ninth commandment prohibiting bearing false witness, is often rendered as neighbor and can also refer to a companion, friend, fellow-citizen or in modern terms it could be a high school peer.”

And Psalm 15:3 describes a “just” person, someone worthy of dwelling in the Lord’s sacred tent, as someone “whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others.”

“Regarding the ancient prohibition against adultery, the Apostle Paul provided further counsel to flee porneia (1 Cor. 6:18), a Greek term which anciently included a very wide range of inappropriate sexual activity, including sexual assault, abuse and misconduct,” Schmidt said. “Whether or not Kavanaugh is personally guilty of these crimes, it has been widely reported that these behaviors occasionally occurred at parties attended by his high school friends and accusers.

“While today many only focus on the victims of sexual misconduct, Paul emphasized that ‘whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body’ (NIV verse 18) because one’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,” Schmidt noted. “Anyone who deeply understands these principles of biblical morality would flee from situations where sexual misconduct occurs because ‘God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral’ (NIV Heb. 13:4).

“We may never know whether Kavanaugh or his accusers or both are guilty of the immorality of which they are being accused,” he said. “What is clear is that the whole situation and the pain and suffering it has caused to everyone involved could have been avoided by adhering to long-standing biblical principles. While believers should not judge, they can rest assured that … the good Word makes it clear that at some future time, justice will be done.” (TAB)