A BOOK ON U.S. APPLICABLE LAW

Deacon San Nguyen

FATHER! YOU MARRY MY HUSBAND!

In the world, the most civilized nation is also the most complex country. Especially in U.S.A., the Great Melting Pot, where Freedom, Democracy, Religions, and Laws are well respected, many unbelievable things could happen daily. People could slander each other by writing books or postings crazy ideas about others on websites. Of course, those unlawful activities will be charged at the maximum of the Law.

By the way, there is an important issue about Slander or Libel that few people notice:

Slander is the crime of making a false statement damaging to a person’s reputation. Forwarding a slander article through Email or Websites is considered as Conspiracy for Libel or Slander, although the man who forwards a slander is not the author of the article. The victim of a slander can sue the man who forwards the article based on the email evidence. Therefore, never forward any email or website that contains a slander to anyone. The charge for a slander or a conspiracy for Libel or Slander is very severe.

1. Mr. Huy devoted his life to a Catholic congregation very well. Daily, he worked from 6:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from Monday to Saturday. His wife worked from 3:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Thus, the couple rarely saw each other except Sunday. However, every Sunday, Huy volunteered to serve the church by teaching a class of Bible and a class of Vietnamese language, then, cleaning up the church until 6:00 p.m. Being so lonely, Mrs. Huy requested the minister to tell her husband to reduce the time he served the church by teaching only one class then going home. The Priest talked to Huy in vain. Huy felt very happy to do things at church. The Pastor then informed Mrs. Huy that the church did not have power to stop anybody who served it. As the priest idea, the problem should be solved right at his house: the wife had to talk Huy to stay at home more to take care of his family. Knowing that the priest could not do anything about it, Mrs. Huy began to doubt the Minister and her husband having some kind of special relationship. Mrs. Huy felt jealous with the close relationship between the two men. Sometimes, she saw the priest and her husband walking side by side happily.
   Seeing no choice to stop her husband from coming to church, Mrs. Huy sent a slander to members of that congregation that the Minister and Huy were gay. She said that the priest had bad relationship with her husband and made her husband leaving her.
2. A new Catholic minister just moved in a church and replaced the old priest. The new minister changed the way of running a church and made a group of long-time serving people who received many privileges from the old priest hated him. The group of unhappy people wrote a letter to a Bishop wrongly accused the new priest that the priest had a relationship with a cleaning man. Furthermore, this group forwarded the slander to the congregation and asked the congregation to have some kinds of action against the priest.
   To solve the problem, The Bishop requested the new priest to have a 2 week vacation and hand the Bishop the keys of the church. The Bishop then stayed at the church for 2 weeks and did all the services by himself. During that time, the Bishop sought the truth through communication with all members of the congregation. After a while, the Bishop found out that a group of serving members told lies about the new priest and committed that slander because they lost some privileges from the old priest.

My comments:

As Civil Law of Oklahoma, number 12, article 1441 about Libel and article 1442 about Slander, if being sued, the person or persons who committed that crime should be charged as follow:

1. Mrs. Huy committed a slander against the Pastor due to her jealousy would be charged severely both spiritually and financially, because she damaged the reputation of a minister of a crowded congregation. However, as a good-hearted priest, the Pastor already forgave her, just asked her to confess her crime with any priest or with the priest whose reputation was damaged by her.
2. Generally, the group published a libel with the purpose to damage the reputation of the priest would be charged severely. However, because the action of libel only happened within the congregation, not in public, the Court would consider it as a complaint against someone in the church system and would dismiss the case. Above all, in order to prevent such bad things happen in the church again, the Bishop requested that group to voluntarily move out to another congregation and apply for membership somewhere else. About the second victim, the cleaner: he was just a regular member of the church, thus, no harm came to him. He needed not to sue anyone because if he did, even he might win, the reward for him was nothing besides a recovered honor.

To conclude this matter, there is one thing we need to remember: Although we live in the Free World, and have all rights to express our opinions on everything, we must be careful when perform our Freedom of Expression. In fact, we can request to be treated fairly, to be equal with everyone else. Nevertheless, we can not use that right to slander a person, or to publish a libel with the purpose that is to harm someone. We should not forward an email which consisted of a libel to our friends because if we did, the Court would call on you and accuse you similarly to the author of the libel.

Next