Posted on 06/04/2016 9:41:54 AM PDT by Salvation
Q. Is every lie intrinsically evil? I remember 60 years ago, when the Jesuits were still faithful teachers of Holy Mother Church, being taught that if a person was not entitled to the truth, one could, in fact, lead them away from the truth, by lying. For example, if I knew the hideout of Anne Frank, and the Gestapo asked me if I knew her whereabouts, according to you (“Intrinsically Evil?” TCA Faith, November/December 2015), if I said I did not, that would be intrinsically evil?
Ed Siering, Muscatine, Iowa
A. Permit a personal reply to this, with the understanding that reasonable people may choose to differ with aspects of my answer. I would answer that the approach you cite is an unfortunately widespread notion related to a questionable concept called “mental reservation.” I call it unfortunate because it seems to say that a lie is not a lie.
But in the common example you cite, you clearly would be lying since it meets the definition of a lie: to speak that which is untrue with the intention of deceiving. Indeed, the entire purpose of the lie is to deceive the officials by saying what is untrue.
It will be granted that the situation described is dreadful and fearsome. But I, and many moral theologians, are not prepared to say it is not a lie simply because the situation is fearful and the authorities are bad people.
Perhaps the better approach is to say that it is a lie and that, as a lie, it is intrinsically wrong. However, when one is under duress or sees no clear way to avoid a consequent grave evil or injustice, the culpability (blame) for such a lie is lessened. It seems rather doubtful that God would make a big deal of the sort of lie you describe on judgment day.
But to call any lie good, or justifiable, is to harm a moral principle unnecessarily. Call it what it is, a lie. It is not good. And it is not permitted to do evil that good may come of it.
With this in mind it is better to say that the lie described is a lie, lamentable but understandable. And given the duress, there was not likely much blame if any that was incurred.
Life sometimes presents difficulties that are not easily overcome. But to adjust moral principles to accommodate anomalies is to engage in a kind of casuistry that does harm to moral principles. Sometimes the best we can do is humbly shrug and say, “Well it’s wrong to lie, but lets trustingly leave the judgment on this one up to God, who knows our struggles and will surely factor in the fearsome circumstances.”
Monsignor Pope Ping for OSV column.
No. Sometimes, a lie is told as a matter of diplomacy and expediency. Not every lie or mistruth is malicious, just as not every truthful expression is necessarily benevolent or altruistic. Sometimes a factual statement, expressed at the wrong time, will bring great misery and collateral damage.
Witness the story of Schiendler’s List, and all the secrets he had to keep.
Falsely claiming that one was a messenger from Field Marshal Rommel in order to release a deadly nerve gas canister in the war room with Hitler and his top aides would not be an evil act. One could argue that telling the truth in that case would be an evil act.
In the example given the purest if souls would state I know and will not tell you or not say anything or respond without answering the question asked. A sin is a sin independent of the magnitude. You begin down a quickly increasing grade of slippery slope once you begin to try explains away the sin.
Now myself i am unclean and have sinned against every commandment - mostly in the heart. However, I continually ask forgiveness and have faith that Christ’s sacrifice removes my sin. I recognize and feel great guilt for my weakness that created the need for the pain he had to endure on my...our behalf. I strive to be better then when I fall and sin again I pray again.
I will say that there are times when I question if I’m just trying to make excuses and aren’t really trying hard enough, but I know that I am no saint and must have faith.
The lie is the weapon used most often by the criminal.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/inside-the-criminal-mind-stanton-samenow/1008291828
Good addition to the thread.
I don’t agree with the author. Telling the truth can be as evil as telling a lie.
...Dennis Prager’s that if a woman is being terrorized, and you have hidden, or helped her escape, and her terrorizer wants to know where she is. Would you then tell him that? Or would you lie to him?
Tough one; the Devil is called the Father of Lies, or The Liar, given his lies to Adam and Eve which started the whole fallen nature of man. In addition, performing a sin (lying) to reach a good goal, is often considered an error (the means do not justify the end) however in the examples given, there are exceptions, aren’t there? It is evil to kill, however supposedly Erich Von Stauffenburg, the German officer who planted the bomb in an attempt to kill Hitler in July, 1944, who himself was later executed, sought approval from his confessor, a Roman Catholic priest, who granted approval (tyrannicide) given the killing of a tyrant who had started WWII and whose orders resulted in so many innocent deaths was justified.
Among Odinists, if someone mocks you, or is false with you, you are encouraged to repay them in the same coin:
42. To his friend a man | a friend shall prove,
And gifts with gifts requite;
But men shall mocking | with mockery answer,
And fraud with falsehood meet.
43. To his friend a man | a friend shall prove,
To him and the friend of his friend;
But never a man | shall friendship make
With one of his foeman’s friends.
44. If a friend thou hast | whom thou fully wilt trust,
And good from him wouldst get,
Thy thoughts with his mingle, | and gifts shalt thou make,
And fare to find him oft.
[40. The key-word in line 3 is missing in the manuscript, but editors have agreed in inserting a word meaning “generous.”
41. In line 3 the manuscript adds “givers again” to “gift-givers.”]
p. 38
45. If another thou hast | whom thou hardly wilt trust,
Yet good from him wouldst get,
Thou shalt speak him fair, | but falsely think,
And fraud with falsehood requite.
46. So is it with him | whom thou hardly wilt trust,
And whose mind thou mayst not know;
Laugh with him mayst thou, | but speak not thy mind,
Like gifts to his shalt thou give.
;)
As with most things, motive and intent are important.
If you lie to gain advantage or to avoid trouble for something you did wrong, well, that’s wrong.
But just as taking a life in defense of your life or the life of another is not necessarily “murder” there are certain times when lying is a form of defending life or something else important from those with evil intent.
Continuing with this comparison I would also suggest that just as genuine self defense is a reaction to what someone else starts and is presently doing so too would lying to protect a life or something similar be a response only.
That said: there is in Christ one type of instance where we must not ever lie even to save our own lives or the lives of those we care about and it is when we are challenged to confess the faith and die vs deny it and live. Christ flatly said that whoever is ashamed of Him that He will be ashamed of them ... which should be seen as basis for a controlling principal for us.
So when the proverbial Stormtrooper comes to your door asking if you’re a Christian the answer is “yes” but if they demand if you’re hiding Jews the answer is “no”.
God can sort out your motives.
Two separate factors:
....people to God
....people to people
My falsehood to thwart the enemy vs Muslem falsehood to advance Muslem agenda? Can we say one’s OK people to people and the other s not OK people to people?
I think if a lie based on man’s will/desires or best interest it’s evil. This includes me (a person) telling false info because of my personal feelings in a situation too.
if only telling part info/omission due to God based reason (save Anne Frank, etc, thwart evil) where God is truly leading us in it (True Peace in storm) then it’s a false info/I suppose a lie, but not evil.
God knows the motives of each heart, whether we are letting God lead us in the situation or we are trying to control it..
Little white lies have probably saved the world from more unnecessary wars.
Lets get to the basics. What is the purpose of a lie?
The purpose of a lie is to control you, to manipulate you.
Truth is never evil, though it can have collateral damage as other posters mentioned, and it may not be well received by others - which is often the case in offense.
But the receiving is up to the receiver to interpret as they choose to. Some people choose to be offended at almost everything.
I think the real question of evil in truth telling is if the person speaking it is doing it has a vicious heart in the moment.
Does this dress make my butt look big?
No.
(Your butt makes your butt look big).
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