Slander Gives Way to Truth (Cymbeline)

Slander Gives Way to Truth (Cymbeline) June 1, 2016

Cymbeline_act1_scene2_by_BURKE,_THOMAS_-_GMII_opt
Love will be err on the side of faith in the beloved.

Want to spot an evil place? Find an organization where the “king” is always in place, but the “inferiors” change out quickly. You can be sure that slippery, slanderous, sneaks are whispering lies.

There are “tricksy” souls intent on protecting or enriching themselves by slandering others.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings has the good king Theoden nearly unmanned by the discouraging whispers of Grima Wormtongue. This is bad, but not the worst that the tricky soul can do. God help me, but I have seen organizations run by Grima and that is worse. Such places live in a culture of fear that is not Nazi-like, but more as if seventh grade gossipers had seized control of an adult organization or nation.

Slander rules. But we must never forget that any healthy organization invites criticism. After all, good people do bad things . . . and evidence should not be ignored yet bad people often accuse good people of bad things they did not do. What are we to do?

We must consider both the known character and the circumstantial evidence we are given. Healthy investigation of problems is open and honest. Slander is sneaky, quiet, and done with a sly last word in a meeting, a quip with a double meaning, or snark that sows doubt.

Slander is the mark of death. If you are in a place where everyone is “dishing” on everyone else (even people who are no longer present), then you know that you should leave. This is a kingdom that is doomed.

What shall I need to draw my sword? the paper
Hath cut her throat already. No, ’tis slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath
Rides on the posting winds and doth belie
All corners of the world: kings, queens and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave
This viperous slander enters.

If you are unsure, read or watch Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. Jesus is being born in Palestine while a British king lives in a nation much in need of God’s truth and justice. God is on his throne, but nobody in Rome or Britain knows God’s name. Nobody in the play is a pagan . . . all rely on Christian morality (delightful moral anachronism) while praying to Roman deities. Jove answers prayers, but the Jove that does justice is just the Jesus by another name.

The problem is not God, or even that they have not yet learned God’s proper name, but that slander has infected the Kingdom. Imogene, the nearly perfect princess, is beset by slander and lies nearly win.

Why don’t they?

The worst a liar can do is kill you! This would be bad news if this was the only life, but it is not. There is justice and though God moves slowly, His justice is sure. No liar, conman, or grifter can prosper in eternity. Lies can only be repeated by liars and all liars die. God speaks the truth over and over and over again for all eternity until slander and lies are buried under the weight of absolute and total truth.

You may be discouraged just now because liars, grifters, thieves, con artists, and Wormtongues seem to triumph. Fear not.

Fear no more the lightning flash,

Fear not slander, censure rash;

Thou hast finish’d joy and moan:

All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.

 For an atheist this is bad news, but for a Christian a most excellent truth. We cannot lose. God will (generally) reveal the truth in this life, but when it is better so, then truth will out more slowly.

All lovers come to dust, but love is never lost. In eternity, love triumphs and slander is ruined by the sheer, endless, joyous, clarity of Truth. It cannot be otherwise. Stalin says Christianity is dead, but Stalin is dead and Christianity lives in Russia. Hitler kills Jewish people, but Hitler is dead and we know him to have been a wicked, slanderous, genocidal tyrant and the Jewish community lives on. Eternity will prove even more relentless.

Of course, this has a frightening side. All of us dodge and hide from the truth (unless we are very saintly). Cymbeline also points (anachronistically) to mercy . . .the mercy of the Christian God who knows all and forgives all . . .if we will only face up, tell the truth, and repent.

God help the nation led by liars proud to lie.

God help us if we lie, slander, and deceive. No tricksy man will inherit the Kingdom of God, but the good news is this: many of us will let the truth be told and change to conform to it. We will live in truth. Be guided by truth. Accept the truth. We will not slander, but love. We will value love over power and friendship over political position.

Happy are the truthful for theirs is the Kingdom of God.

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William Shakespeare went to God four hundred years ago. To recollect his death, I am writing a personal reflection on a few of his plays. The Winter’s Tale started things off, followed by As You Like It. Romeo and Juliet still matter, Lady Macbeth rebukes the lust for power, and Henry V is a hero. Richard II shows us not to presume on the grace of God or rebel against authority too easily. Coriolanus reminds us that our leaders need integrity and humility. Our life can be joyful if we realize that it is, at best, A Comedy of Errors.  Hamlet needs to know himself better and talks to himself less. He is stuck with himself so he had better make his peace with God quickly and should stay far away from Ophelia. Shakespeare gets something wrong in Merchant of Venice . . . though not as badly as some in the English Labour Party or in my Twitter feed. Love if blind, but intellectualism is blind and impotent in Love’s Labours LostBrutus kills Caesar, but is overshadowed by him in Julius Caesar.  We should learn not to make Much Ado about Nothing. We might all be Antony, but if we would avoid his fate then we must avoid flattery and the superficial love of Troilus and CressidaWe are fools, but our goal should be to accept it and not to degenerate into Biblical fools during our Midsummer Night’s DreamRichard III is a symptom of a bad leadership community, but be careful that use Measure for Measure to guide your reaction to the mess. The modern university is Iago in Othello playing on our sins to destroy the nation. You can’t accumulate your way to a great leader and personal piety in Henry VI (Part I) is not enough to make a great king. God will save the King, not our stupid partisan squabbles seen in Henry VI (Part 2)  and not kingmakers as existed in Henry VI (Part 3). Fortunately, in God’s world All’s Well That Ends Well. Two Gentlemen remind me that being in love is grand. King John keeps winning and so loses. Slander always gives way to truth in Cymbeline.


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