Fudging the Facts

It was the great Sir Walter Scott who coined the well-known saying Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. Well it is my observation that our society has now got it down pitch perfect given the eons of practice—from the first blood on the ground of the brothers Cain and Abel. Where is your brother? I don’t know!

The euphemisms we employ lend support to the fact that we innately seem to know that lying is wrong; why else would we have assembled such a line-up of alternate words such as: spin, misstatement, misspeak, misinformation, inaccuracies of recollection, deficiencies in reporting the facts, economical with the truth?  And many more.

We lie because we are afraid of the consequences. We lie because we are ashamed and don’t want to be found out. Then we have to lie some more to keep the narrative consistent. It was Quintilian who so rightly observed: A liar should have a good memory.  But when love replaces fear, we have no need to lie, no need to be ambiguous or to obfuscate the actuality.

Or do we still find ourselves fudging the facts—bearing false witness! —for some of the same reasons we always did? Are we in danger of being so “free” that we eschew the imperative of pure, unadulterated, transparent communication, considering it too legalistic to always speak the truth? Do we lie to ourselves and others saying it doesn’t matter, no big deal, little white lie…

Remember when Jesus said, let your yes be yes and your no be no, for anything else is of the evil one? I’ve always wondered about that. Simple, straightforward communication—with as few words as possible —may be a built-in safe guard against prevarication.

But why is it important at all? Perhaps simply because we are built for truth, and when we lie, we violate who we are—made in the image of God of whom it is said, he cannot lie because he is love. When we lie we hurt ourselves and diminish our common life together; trust is broken and we don’t know who or what to believe—making cynics of us all; confusion reigns when liars have to retract statements—nonchalantly apologizing when caught. The world wide web of deceit is degrading, demonic and—so beneath us.

For a longer article on this topic see my web site and under Articles, select Truth on the Throne