Honest To God
A generation or two ago, there was a popular tune whose lyrics proclaimed: "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie". Usually, it is a dangerous business to use song lyrics to guide our moral reflections. But in this case let's at least start with those lyrics and ask the question: "Is it really a sin to tell a lie?"
But before we do that, let's understand what a lie is. In the precise language of the Handbook of Moral Theology, a lie is "a voluntary utterance contrary to intellectual conviction". Hmmm. If I said: "I've never been in East Avon" when in fact I had been in East Avon but had somehow forgotten the experience, I would not have lied. However, if I said "I've never been in East Avon" when in fact I had been there last Tuesday robbing a bank, I would have uttered a lie. So a lie involves more than saying something that's not true. A lie must necessarily involve a conscious decision to say something contrary to what one believes to be the truth. It is impossible to "accidentally tell a lie".
Lies are different from so-called mental reservations. A mental reservation is an act of the mind, restricting the meaning of words to a meaning different from their obvious and literal one. So, if I say, "That's a nice-looking tie, Uncle Harry" even though I know it is perfectly hideous and so does everyone else, possibly including Uncle Harry himself, I am using a "mental reservation". It's not a lie.
According to the Handbook cited above, there are three kinds of lies: profitable lies (those which are spoken to benefit oneself), harmful lies (those causing special injury to another), and jocose lies (those spoken for the sake of giving amusement or pleasure). Is that more than you wanted to know? OK, I'll stop -- although each of these categories can be further broken down.
The point is this: All of these various kinds of lies are wrong. Again citing the Handbook: "A lie is intrinsically evil, so that no reason whatsoever can justify its use". Period. No exceptions. Why do we say lies are always evil? The logic goes like this: The faculty of speech is a gift from God. The intended purpose of that gift is to transmit information. (That sounds a bit abstract. But think about it: If there was no need for human beings to transmit information to one another -- through such utterances as: "The cows are in the pasture" or "I love you" - then we would have no need for vocal cords.) When we lie, we are not using speech to transmit information, but to achieve the opposite effect. When we lie, we are misusing a gift that God has given us. That is, we are using a gift in a way contrary to its proper purpose. The misuse of any faculty (sight, brains, muscles, sexual drive, etc.) is a sin. Therefore, the lyrics to the old song are right: It's a sin to tell a lie.
So lying is sinful because it is a misuse of a gift. It's not simply a matter of annoying the divine gift-giver, as if he were a fussy old guy who is extra picky about how His gifts are to be used. I think it's more like this: Suppose I give a croquet set to my grandson, and he uses the mallets to bonk his little brother over the head. The reason why the misuse is bad is that it undermines the relationship that ought to exist between the two boys. It's the same deal with using the gift of speech to lie. It messes up relationships every time, and people get hurt.
Deacon Greg Sampson
Diocese of Rochester
