\n25<\/b><\/a><\/span>On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. \u201cTeacher,\u201d he asked, \u201cwhat must I do to inherit eternal life?\u201d\u00a026<\/b><\/a><\/span>\u201cWhat is written in the Law?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0he replied.\u00a0\u201cHow do you read it?\u201d \u00a0<\/span>27<\/b><\/a><\/span>He answered, \u201c\u202f\u2018Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind\u2019c<\/a><\/sup><\/span>\u00a0; and, \u2018Love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019d<\/a><\/sup><\/span>\u00a0\u201d\u00a028<\/b><\/a><\/span>\u201cYou have answered correctly,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Jesus replied.\u00a0\u201cDo this and you will live.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>29<\/b><\/a><\/span>But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, \u201cAnd who is my neighbor? \u00a0(Luke 10: 25 \u2013 29, NIV, from biblehub.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019m still thinking about the issue of culture, and struck by a piece from Slate today, \u201cHow You Lie Depends on Where You\u2019re From<\/a>,\u201d which had two main points: \u00a0first, that one\u2019s mannerisms and the ways one interacts with others vary enough by culture that tell-tale signs of lying likewise differ among cultures; and, second, that the matter of when lies are even wrong in the first place varies by culture \u2014 meaning that police, customs officials, etc., trying to identify liars by their nervous behavior, are stymied when the liars\u2019 consciences\u2019 are clear. \u00a0Examples of the second: \u00a0\u201cThat which can be considered a \u2018lie\u2019 by regular polygraphs used in the West may not be considered a lie by Turkish people,\u201d according to one expert the article cites, and<\/p>\n
While around world, there are rules against lying, what counts as a lie differs from place to place. As one polygraph operator who served during World War II and worked for the CIA wrote in 1987, \u201cIn most cultures, speaking truth is a virtue and lying is a vice,\u201d but \u201cthe polygraph operator working overseas learns to modify his theory somewhat.\u201d Other 20th-century American polygraph operators reported that \u201cthe Russians value truth among their fellow citizens but will unhesitatingly lie if they perceived doing so as a duty to the state\u201d and that \u201clying to prevent problems between people is acceptable in Arab culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
While this might be somewhat essentialist, research has borne out the idea that cultural differences change how people lie.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve know that for quite a long time,\u201d says Taylor. \u201cWhat constitutes lying in other populations can be very distinct from what constitutes lying in Western cultures.\u201d In some places, little white lies that smooth social situations might not be considered lies at all, for instance. Or, says Castillo, \u201cif you view lying as a way of protecting your family and if family is culturally important to you, you won\u2019t be nervous lying.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Now, this last sentence is interesting \u2014 certainly it\u2019s generally accepted that there\u2019s nothing wrong with deceiving someone to protect someone in cases where it\u2019s a matter of justice, the standard example being a family hiding Jews behind a false wall. \u00a0So I\u2019m presuming that there\u2019s more going on here \u2014 that it\u2019s a matter of it being culturally acceptable to lie in a broader range of situations, where it would advantage you, or your family, or your \u201ctribe\u201d however defined.<\/p>\n