On Lying<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How's that for a title to a post? Is it ever morally justifiable to lie? This is the question Gilbert Meilaender addresses in the 2d chp of his book The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Lying\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How's that for a title to a post? Is it ever morally justifiable to lie? This is the question Gilbert Meilaender addresses in the 2d chp of his book The\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-07-05T06:30:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/\",\"name\":\"On Lying\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-07-05T06:30:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-07-05T06:30:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"How's that for a title to a post? Is it ever morally justifiable to lie? This is the question Gilbert Meilaender addresses in the 2d chp of his book The\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On Lying\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"On Lying","description":"How's that for a title to a post? Is it ever morally justifiable to lie? This is the question Gilbert Meilaender addresses in the 2d chp of his book The","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"On Lying","og_description":"How's that for a title to a post? Is it ever morally justifiable to lie? This is the question Gilbert Meilaender addresses in the 2d chp of his book The","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2007-07-05T06:30:34+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/","name":"On Lying","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-07-05T06:30:34+00:00","dateModified":"2007-07-05T06:30:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"How's that for a title to a post? Is it ever morally justifiable to lie? This is the question Gilbert Meilaender addresses in the 2d chp of his book The","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"On Lying"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":2718,"date":"2007-07-05T01:30:34","date_gmt":"2007-07-05T06:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/"},"modified":"2007-07-05T01:30:34","modified_gmt":"2007-07-05T06:30:34","slug":"on-lying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/05\/on-lying\/","title":{"rendered":"On Lying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

How\u2019s that for a title to a post? Is it ever morally justifiable to lie? This is the question Gilbert Meilaender addresses in the 2d chp of his book The Way That Leads There<\/a><\/em>. Augustine, his sparring partner, says \u201cNever!\u201d And here are Augustine\u2019s five reasons.
\n1. Because lying breaks the bond between humans created by the assumption that we tell the truth.
\n2. Because lying infects the human character and one lie might lead to others.
\nWhat about the compensatory lie \u2014 lying because of a good\/better cause?
\n3. Because lying in one case makes us subject to others who might lie in a bigger situation.
\n4. Because each of us is responsible for our acts but not the results that follow from our acts.
\n5. Because lying breaks down the witness of martyrs.
\nAugustine, Meilaender notes, taught that there is forgiveness for the one who simply couldn\u2019t resist the compensatory lie. But, over time, the Christian ought to develop to no lying.
\nMeilaender, drawing on others, disagrees. He provides three reasons or exceptions where lying is justifiable.
\n1. A child is asked to reveal in public if his\/her father is a drunk; the child says \u201cNo\u201d in order to protect his\/her family. The blame lies upon the teacher who demanded the information from the child.
\n2. We are asked if we want to look at the pictures of a dear woman\u2019s grandchildren; we lie and say \u201cSure, I\u2019d love to.\u201d This decision is made on the basis of knowing that the verbal lie expresses a deeper commitment to share this grandma\u2019s love and life.
\n3. We are asked by a loved one on their death bed if our child is doing well \u2014 when we know if we say \u201cNo\u201d it might destroy the loved one\u2019s health. We say, \u201cShe\u2019s doing well.\u201d Here we tell a lie in order to respect the life of one we love. There is a time to tell the truth; there is a time to let the situation to ripen.
\nAugustine knows that \u201cdesire\u201d and \u201cduty\u201d to do what God calls us come into conflict. For Augustine, the desire and duty to praise God and to enjoy the Beauty of God from whom no word of deceit can come leads him to beat his sometime desire to lie. Instead, he will always tell the truth, regardless of what that means.
\nAugustine tells the truth \u2014 always \u2014 because of hope, because he believes we will answer before God and desire even in this life to do nothing that might besmirch the beauty of God\u2019s utter truthfulness.
\nThe antonym for mendacity (lying) is adoration, not simply truth-telling.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"