Writing in the Peace Weekly, the columnist begins by telling us the Cretans had a bad reputation. He is responding to the recent scandals that have rocked the political scene in Korea.
According to St.Paul in his letter to Titus 1:12, "Cretans are always liars, wicked beasts, and lazy gluttons" these are not Paul's words but quotes from one of their own prophets.
The writer accepts that Epimenides the Cretan Philosopher wrote these words. However, Epimenides is a Cretan so what he says is it true? Here we have the famous Epimenides Paradox. Being a Cretan then all he says if false what he said about Cretans is also false, so Cretans are not all liars. On the other hand, if what Epimenides says is true the statement is false. Here we go around in circles and left with the question: What is truth? How much lying must have gone on in Crete to give rise to this statement?
A Japanese news medium reported: "Koreans lie like they breathe." The Japanese News medium quoted the Korean National Police Agency statistics and berated Korea for being the world's biggest 'con' country. According to the statistics, they have 66 times the fraud, perjury and libel compared to Japan and if we take into account the population it would be 165 times that of Japan.
The whole country is a practice site for lying. "From the President down to the other leaders in society, all are adept at lying." The report is malicious but they have hit a raw nerve. The countries have different ways of behaving but it is not worth trying to explain ourselves, says the columnist.
"I can look up at the heavens without a speck of embarrassment." These are the words of a public servant who later was tried and convicted of a crime. What was his belief when he was calling heaven as his witness?
Will we all go ahead and lie? You can lie and I can. Let us give each other the permission to lie. Does this make sense? We are giving ourselves permission to deceive and be deceived. Individual lying needs to be strictly differentiated from lying in the public place. Leaders of a country who lie prevent the country from being trusted. This is the reason why those who are in positions of authority have to be addressed differently than individuals.
We have become familiar with the landscape where money and power embrace one another. They involve many others in the web. Eventually, seeing what is happening many are overcome with nausea. "He who conceived iniquity and was pregnant with mischief brings forth failure(Ps. 7:15 ).
