By Rev. Mac Hamon
Isaiah 59:9-15a (NRSV):
Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not reach us;
we wait for light, and lo! there is darkness;
and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
10 We grope like the blind along a wall,
groping like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
among the vigorous[a] as though we were dead.
11 We all growl like bears;
like doves we moan mournfully.
We wait for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions before you are many,
and our sins testify against us.
Our transgressions indeed are with us,
and we know our iniquities:
13 transgressing, and denying the Lord,
and turning away from following our God,
talking oppression and revolt,
conceiving lying words and uttering them from the heart.
14 Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands at a distance;
for truth stumbles in the public square,
and uprightness cannot enter.
15 Truth is lacking,
and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.
The story is told of four high school boys who couldn’t resist the temptation to skip morning classes. Each had been smitten with a bad case of spring fever. After lunch they showed up at school and reported to the teacher that their car had a flat tire. Much to their relief, the teacher smiled and said, “Well, you missed a quiz this morning, so take your seats and get out a piece of paper.” Still smiling, she waited as they settled down and got ready for her question.
Then she said, “First question—which tire was flat?”
It’s lying, whether we call it a fib or, as a former President calls it: “truthful hyperbole.” Sissela Bok in her book Lying: Moral Choice in Private and Public Life, suggests that people lie several times a day. According to a survey, 91% of those surveyed lie routinely about matters they consider trivial, 36% lie about important matters, 86% lie regularly to their parents, 75% lie to friends, 73% lie to their siblings, and 69% lie to their spouses (The Day America Told the Truth by James Patterson, 1991).
Some frequent lies we tell ourselves and others:
- I’ll start my diet tomorrow.
- The check is in the mail.
- One size fits all.
- This offer is limited to the first 100 people.
- I just need five minutes of your time.
- I’ll be brief.
- In conclusion.
- Let’s have lunch sometime.
- Leave your resume and we’ll keep it in a file.
- “Gee, you haven’t changed a bit.”
The prophet Isaiah was dealing with Israelites that had come home. They had been in Babylonian exile until 538 BCE. At that point Cyrus, the Persian, a more benevolent ruler, let the Israelites come home. Although many stayed in Babylon, having grown accustomed to the lifestyle, those who did return from Babylon found Jerusalem and the Temple in ruins. As often happens when situations turn desperate, conflict erupted among those who had returned and relationships broke down. Their paths were not those that followed peace but were crooked and corrupt. They stumbled around groping for direction as they wandered from God and found the truth absent in their relationships. Even those who tried to follow a better way were denigrated for it. It was a mess.
We see that played out in our own country when we are besieged by tragic events. Truth is the first casualty. People in government, rather than debate ideas and solutions, turn to personal attacks or what in debate is called ad hominem arguments. As a result everyone chooses up sides and the lies pour forth.
In fact, the polarization that continues to grow in our country, along with the lies and misinformation that feeds it, began in 1981, with the passing of the Economic Recovery Act, substantially cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Thomas Piketty in his seminal book Capital in the Twenty-first Century (2013), indicated that the income inequality, which began in America with this tax cut, would continue to expand and lead to the very polarization and infighting that now plagues us.
We see it in our churches when there is trouble. Before you know it, sides are established and the truth begins to stumble. Solutions are displaced by personal attacks, trust disappears, and divisions are the rule of the day. Paul witnessed this in Corinth. People were divided along class lines, and spiritual elitism exacerbated the strife. Paul tried to temper the division by emphasizing self-love as the gift toward which all should strive, but as the second letter to the church at Corinth seems to suggest, he didn’t have much luck.
Are lies ever justifiable? John Wesley believed that there were no circumstances under which a lie could be justified. He wrote, I would not tell a lie to save the souls of all the world. Thomas Aquinas, however believed that there are certain situations in which lying is justified. He listed three categories of lies:
- Officious or helpful lies.
- Jocose or lies told in jest.
- Malicious lies intent on harming another person.
Under helpful lies he would include the situation where someone is out to do harm to another person and they ask you where they can be found. You know but are unwilling to see that person harmed so you tell them a lie. On a larger scale this kind of lying goes on all the time in war where strategy means giving the enemy the impression that you are going to attack one place while you plan to attack in another.
While physical harm was the original intent, we have extended that to mean harm to include a person’s feelings. What is interesting is that we believe we alone are the ones who can make the decision. We do not believe that authority can be given to another.
The ninth commandment prohibits bearing false witness against a neighbor. This has to deal with lying in a legal sense. However, in the book of Proverbs the writer says, “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him (6:16-19):
- haughty eyes,
- a lying tongue,
- hands that shed innocent blood,
- a heart that devises wicked plans,
- feet that hurry to run to evil,
- a lying witness who testifies falsely.
A teaching of Jesus about lying concerns a father with two sons. He asks them both to go into the field and do some work. The first one says he will not, but then changes his mind. The second son says he will go but does not go (Matthew 21:28-32). To make this a bit more personal, there was a person who suffered a great tragedy. Many said, “My thoughts and prayers are with you,” when indeed they did no such thing. Others said nothing, but upon reflection prayed fervently for healing for the tragedy that had befallen this person.
I would submit that it is impossible for us to tell the truth all of the time and indeed there will be times when telling the truth could be harmful. However, under those circumstances, we should ask ourselves if we are doing the most selflessly loving thing or are we trying to avoid consequences to ourselves.
I am much more concerned about the potential harm of deep fake technology. This technology enables an individual to make a video where any person can be technologically cloned both in appearance and in voice. Increasingly, it is impossible for the average person, and in some cases even those sophisticated technologically, to tell the difference. Imagine what might happen when used against a political opponent or someone who is disliked by another!
It’s interesting that reference letters from pastors are considered to be the least reliable. A pastor was asked by her parishioner whom she knew to be pretty lazy for a recommendation for another job. She thought hard all night for something that would be honest without hurting the young man’s chances. She finally wrote: “You will be lucky if you can get him to work for you.”
Truth telling is always a challenge, but we owe it to ourselves and others to do the best we can.
Question: When is it acceptable for you to lie, and when is it acceptable for others to lie to you?
