Liars for Jesus

…is back in the game. The result will be the same as last time: a cheap short-term gain as prolifers feel a thrill over embarrassing Murder Inc. followed by the damage done, first to Christians who embrace lying for Jesus, and second by a public relations windfall for Murder Inc., who can rightly say that prolife Christians are liars.

For those who are unfamiliar with the controversy surrounding this matter, please go here before sounding off in the combox.

The usual rejoinder to those of us (like Augustine, Aquinas, and virtually every other major theologian) to address the question of lying is the hoary, “What if the Gestapo was at your door?” Because everything always comes back to Nazis. Sure the Church could say lying was bad back in the simple days of marauding and raping Vikings, merciless Saracens, and Romans who would roast people alive on griddles. But when Nazis came along and *our* generation discovered *real* evil for the first time everything changed and it became okay to do whatever we think best without reference to old-fashioned Church teaching (except about abortion and contraception, that’s still binding). But all other moral issues are prudential judgements. So when the Church tells us that lying, by its very nature, is to be condemned, we either call that a “Prudential judgment” (Latin for “screw the guidance of the wussy bishops and do whatever seems best to you”) or we simply resort to euphemism and rename “lying” something else like “acting” or “citizen journalism”.

Euphemism is an infallible indicator of the presence of evil.

Christianity is a *faith*. That means it has nothing to offer if it cannot offer the truth. Christians who imagine they are serving the Faith by establshing a reputation as liars are fools. They are also, by the way, telegraphing that fact that, at the end of the day, they do not trust God, but instead believe they must lie in order to establish the kingdom. It is utter folly.