by Mary W. Matthews

Created on: June 09, 2008

Never live by rules that involve the words "always" or "never." Life just isn't that simple. (Nor should it be!)

A lie is a statement made with the intention of deceiving another person. But there are three categories of lies: lies that cause injury to a person, thing, or idea; what St. Augustine called "honest, charitable, well-meant lies," lies that seek to AVOID injury; and jokes.

If you commit yourself to ALWAYS telling the truth, that means you may never again tell a joke or laugh when a joke is told to you, since laughing would mean you approve of someone else's lies. Good luck with that!

Lies that seek to AVOID injury are called "white lies." White lies are almost always told to avoid hurting someone's feelings ("No, that dress doesn't make you look fat"); to avoid giving offense ("Some of my best friends are [out-group]"); or to avert injury to a third party ("You're planning on beating up your wife? No, I have no idea where she fled to" or "No, Ann Frank is NOT hiding from you Nazis in my attic").

White lies are those that harm no one but that result in a positive outcome for at least one of the people involved. Lies to children are usually considered white lies — for example, "The stork brought you" or "Santa wants you to do your chores without grumbling."

The Bible is full of warnings against lying, and it even prohibits perjury, one form of lying. But the Bible is not TOTALLY against lying. For example:

* In the book of Genesis, Abram instructs Sarah to tell the kings of Egypt and Gerar that she is his sister rather than his wife, and Isaac tells the king of Gerar that Rebecca is his sister rather than his wife. All three lies are said to have been told because the man is afraid he will be killed and his wife enslaved. In each case, THE LORD — that is, Yahweh — approved of the lie, rewarding the liar and going so far as to punish the Egyptians for believing Abram's lie. (Gen. 12:9-13:2, 20, 26:1-11)

* Shiphrah and Puah, Hebrew slaves in Egypt, risked their lives and disobeyed the king's order to kill all Hebrew boy-babies the moment they were born. When the king asked them why they disobeyed his order, they told him it was because Hebrew women were so strong they didn't NEED midwives. "So God dealt well with the midwives." (Ex. 1:15-22)

* Rahab, the madam of a brothel around 1400 BCE, risked her life and lied to the king of Jericho about where two of her customers were, saving Joshua's spies from death. In reward for Rahab's lie, Yahweh

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