On Lying
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:date: 2018-01-07
:category: faith
:tags: blogComment, conscience, theology

(a comment to the blogpost_ by Robert O’Callahan)

I think the truthfulness among Christians is overrated. Here, 
I said it.

OK, before saying anything else, I have to say that being honest 
is very important, and I know what I am talking about. I had my 
brush with an addiction, and obviously truth is the first victim 
of any addiction, so I know that it is extremely important for me 
to resist any temptation to *embellish* truth.

However, having said that, I am quite certain that the absolute 
100% truthfulness as required by brother O’Callahan is not what 
God actually asks and that such requirement is just later 
addition of modern era (?). One fun fact: there is no commandment 
“Thou shall not lie.” among The Ten Commandments (I am persuaded 
that “Thou shall not bear false witness” is more about 
relationships than about plain presentation of facts). Yes, 
truthfulness is couple of times valued highly by The Scriptures 
(mostly Proverbs) and lying is being actively discouraged, but 
that still doesn’t make the truth speaking the most valued 
quality as it seems sometimes it is presented, it is not even one 
the cardinal virtues. Two fun examples for consideration.

I grew up in the Communist Czechoslovakia. Yes, it was unnatural 
culture of fear we lived in, but I would have absolutely no 
qualms when asked whether our family listened to The Radio Free 
Europe (for example) to reply with the most angelic face I could 
muster and question “What is The Radio Free Europe?”.

What I mean is that when presented with a potential secret, we 
should consider *why* the information needs to be kept secret, 
and work on it as long as we are sure we can keep it secret.  
There are just too many situations, when it is perfectly OK 
pretending not knowing what was The Radio Free Europe, or when we 
should pretend not knowing somebody has life-threatening illness, 
or when somebody’s secret is just not ours to tell. Also, 
I shouldn’t mention the Seal of the Confessional, should I (which 
in my opinion applies to any confession, even when I am not 
member of a denomination which accepts confession as 
a sacrament)?

The second example is again from my life. Before being a computer 
programmer, I was a lawyer (graduated from two law schools: one 
in Prague, one in US). There was absolutely no way I could betray 
the trust of my clients who entrusted me sometimes with secrets 
worth millions of crowns (or dollars, if you wish). Of course, if 
Google was our client, I would with the most innocent smile 
answer that I had no information about any browser development on 
their side.

.. _blogpost:
    http://robert.ocallahan.org/2018/01/on-keeping-secrets.html