Yesterday, I posted about a pastor who lied about his military service and exemplified how Satan can take an even good man, and little by little seduce him to the dark side.
However, for those of you who wonder how one can spot a military phony, there are several websites that will help you find out. One of the various is http://militarytimes.com/projects/hallofstolenvalor/. You can find some of them by Googling™ the phrase “stolen valor.” At sites such as the official site for the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, http://www.cmohs.org/, one can find a full list of recipients and bios. So, with a little research, you can quickly debunk a faker, and most of the people you meet boasting about their exploits are fakers.
As you may have guessed by now, it is often not that hard to begin figuring out who is faking. The rule of thumb is rather simple. The more elite the military group and the more daring the exploits, the LESS likely that the person will say anything at all about that group or about that exploit. The more secret the mission, the LESS likely you will hear about it unless you have a need to know. The more often a veteran has seen combat, the LESS likely they will give you the gory details. Even veterans who are diagnoses with PTSD do not tend to talk about their experiences. They may act out in any of various ways, but the last thing they want to open up about is what drove them into PTSD.
Conversely, the more that a person speaks about the details of their combat experience, the more likely that the experience was false and that they were a cook. ( 😆 ) Now, I phrased it that way, “about the details,” because I needed to allow for two groups that will publicly mention parts of their military service. One of them is politicians. If a politician has served, even if only Stateside and for one hitch, the brochure will say that the person served proudly in defense of his country. That is, of course, absolutely true, but the impression is often given that there is more behind it than there was. If the politician has actually served in a combat theater, the brochure will go into more detail. But, note that the rule is still followed that little detail of the actual combat experience is actually given. The other group that will do that, as yesterday’s story pointed out, are pastors. Again, provided that both groups do not exaggerate, there is nothing wrong with that mention.
Nevertheless, watch out for story-tellers. After all, it is Scripture that says that Satan is a father of lies. He has many sons and daughters wandering around.
How do you know a pastor who is telling a story is lying? He is moving his lips.