The other day I received an email from a friend of mine who sent me a political article which made what I would call "wild claims" about one of the political candidates. He thought it was funny and worthy of making an "all mail" send out with a request to pass it on to others. Some emailed back their approving remarks: "finally someone says it!" one of them reads. I got the humor but did not laugh. I knew the claims were simply false. Truth is, I am tired of politics in our country being treated as a game and the divisiveness, based - not in truth - but the desire to slam dunk the other side with absolute falsehood or half-twisted truth. This past Sunday in the sermon, I mentioned the Ten Commandments and in particular the one against "bearing false witness against the neighbor." The commandments were given to provide a base level of civility necessary to make a loving and vibrant community possible. And one of these commandments says we should not speak of others in ways we know to be false. Both of our major political candidates claim a Christian faith. In light of that, it seems to me they and those who running their campaign would do well to reread this commandment. If we are going to be a nation - a national community - we would do well to attend to that which makes community possible. And that means refusing to participate in what we know to be false or suspect to be false - even when it might bring us pleasure. We are all safer and better off when we remain in the truth.