“Liar! Liar! Pants of fire!” People have always lied, but it seems to me today, lying is reaching epidemic proportions. Lying is not good for the liar, for their friends, and for society. Lying deceives. Lying is destructive. Lying hides the truth. Lying hides reality. Lying is not good for anyone, and yet today lying is commonplace. This is due in part to our Postmodern culture where everything is relative and you need to critically tear apart or deconstruct the truth to point out the perceived bias (while ignoring your own personal bias). Thus the truth gets twisted or discarded and outright falsehoods are promoted as fact. Why do we so easily discard the truth and believe the lies?
In the past five years, I have learned of two new words, misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation is the unintentional sharing of falsehoods, or it also can be sharing a truth that has been taken out of context in order to make it fit a certain narrative. Political opponents will point out statements that their opponents did say, but by taking the statements out of context they make the statements sound bad. With our social media accounts, we will pass on these falsehoods because we want those statements to be true when they are really lies. We need to be aware of the spin that is sometimes put on the facts and also be willing to verify the lies that we come across. Remember every effective lie has a kernel of truth. Now disinformation is an outright lie. The purpose of disinformation is to promote division, mistrust, and hate. Much of the disinformation are stories and pictures that come from foreign sources, like Russia, China, and Iran. Their purpose is to weaken America by sowing division, mistrust, and hatred. We need to be aware of disinformation so we are not misinformed and pass on these lies. We need to promote truth and avoid these lies, even if we do not like what the truth says.
Lying deceives. One can deceive oneself. You may come to believe the falsehood. You use the lie to boost your own self esteem or to boost your own power and fortunes, but reality is lying undermines your own self-worth and your personal integrity. Lying deceives others and lying can put relationships in jeopardy. Can you trust a liar? And lies can deceive entire societies to promote bad behaviors and wrongful actions. We need to be careful and promote only the truth.
God considers lying to be an abomination (Proverbs 12:22). God speaks against lying in the Ten Commandments: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). There are many more scriptures warning about lying. Here are a few more: Psalm 101:7, Proverbs 12:19, Proverbs 19:9, and Colossians 3:9-10.
How do we handle lying? First we need to look at ourselves. Am I a liar? Do I deceive myself? We need to first recognise who we are. We are broken. We are sinners. The Bible says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). We are not perfect (Matthew 5:48). We are not good enough, but there is good news. “If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). God will forgive. We need not deceive ourselves. God knows and still loves us (John 3:16). Do not lie to yourself. Live life with integrity. You need to face reality and truth head on.
God calls us to put away falsehoods and lies and speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15,25). It is good for our relationships to speak truthfully to one another. It builds trust in your relationships, and it gives you integrity. It is good for the community too. If we can count on one another, our communities can thrive. Let us speak truth in love, and avoid promoting any lies.
In this political season, lies, falsehoods, and ridicule are everywhere. The purpose of the ridicule, lies, and falsehoods is to destroy their political opponents, but it also undermines our society. There is less trust in our society today because of these lies. Let us rise above the fray, and be kind, gracious, and truthful in all we say and do. Do not promote lies! Stand for the truth! By doing so I believe we can strengthen society.
This was inspired in part by Don Overcash’s editorial “The Power and Value of Truth” (Subscription is needed) and in part by “How to Avoid Misinformation and Disinformation Online”.
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