{"id":3738,"date":"2011-08-17T11:19:55","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T15:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/slacktivist\/?p=3738"},"modified":"2011-08-17T11:19:55","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T15:19:55","slug":"its-not-a-lie-if-you-believe-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/08\/17\/its-not-a-lie-if-you-believe-it\/","title":{"rendered":"'It's not a lie if you believe it'"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So says Seinfeld\u2019s<\/em> George Costanza. But whether or not he really believed that<\/em> is hard to say.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s often hard to say whether or not the speaker really believes what they\u2019re saying when they\u2019re saying something that isn\u2019t true. Yesterday we discussed a currently circulating political falsehood, trying to discern whether it was repeated as an outright lie or just an irresponsible rumor.<\/p>\n

The realm of untrue statements is large and incredibly diverse. It includes honest mistakes, honest misstatements and misinformation that may be shared innocently or spread intentionally in service of some larger purpose, commendable or contemptible. It includes sarcastic and ironic statements, exaggerations and understatements, jokes, ghost stories, tall tales and urban legends. It includes propaganda, gossip, rumor, spin, marketing and salesmanship. It includes white lies, euphemisms and the little lies and obfuscations told to protect the vulnerable or to preserve the innocence of children.<\/p>\n

And, of course, it includes all manner of deliberate and venomous lies \u2014 slurs, slanders, libels, scams, cons, hoodwinkery, bamboozlement and every form of bearing false witness against a neighbor.<\/p>\n

Some of those sub-categories overlap and interbreed, creating strange hybrid forms of untrue statements that seem simultaneously innocent and malicious. Some involve self-deception as much as, or even more than, the deception of others.<\/p>\n

The more these distinct forms of untrue statements overlap and intermix, the more interesting I find them to be. The classic snake-oil salesman, for example, isn\u2019t terribly interesting. He lies about his useless product in an effort to deceive others into giving him their money. But what of the snake-oil salesman who began as a customer and who believes \u2014 or partly<\/em> believes, or needs<\/em> to believe \u2014 that the homeopathic tincture of snake-oil he\u2019s peddling is or at least might<\/em> be effective? That\u2019s a more intriguing case, more deserving of the attention of a playwright or a psychologist or a theologian.<\/p>\n

I want to turn next to a particular sub-species of untrue statement that interests me because it\u2019s one of those murky areas where deception and self-deception seem inextricably woven together. It\u2019s the sort of falsehood that others may identify as a form of lying before the liar herself even realizes that this is what she\u2019s doing. And it\u2019s a form of falsehood that\u2019s of particular interest to me as a Christian because it is frequently heard from pulpits on Sunday mornings.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m referring to the gooiest, most syrupy and sentimental form of lying there is \u2014 to what the folks at Snopes.com<\/a> categorize as \u201cglurge.\u201d Snopes defines glurge<\/a> \u2014 a semi-onomatopoeic term coined by Patricia Chapin on the site\u2019s message boards \u2014 as:<\/p>\n

\u2026 the body of inspirational tales which conceal much darker meanings than the uplifting moral lessons they purport to offer, and which undermine their messages by fabricating and distorting historical fact in the guise of offering \u2018true stories.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For examples, see Snopes\u2019 \u201cGlurge Gallery<\/a>.\u201d Or just check your email in-box for the latest 10th-generation forwarded spam from your great aunt. Or attend church regularly where, sooner or later, you\u2019re bound to encounter a glurge-y sermon illustration that comes from, or at least belongs in, that Snopes gallery.<\/p>\n

Before we dive into the topic of glurge in more detail, let\u2019s first cleanse the palate with a taste of something a bit sharper. Lark News<\/a> offers a fine send-up of the pulpit-glurge sub-sub-species of missionary stories:<\/p>\n

Missionary story careens out of control<\/a><\/p>\n

CHARLESTON, W. Va. \u2014 John Lemier, missionary to the Congo, was given 20 minutes to share about God\u2019s work and ask for financial support at Grace in the Valley church on Sunday. But somehow, witnesses say, he got off track \u2026<\/p>\n

He insisted that just before he came to the U.S., a Congolese child was swallowed by a boa constrictor, which then fell 20 stories off a cliff. The child, he said, came back to life after two mysterious strangers, both 9 feet tall and wearing shiny white clothes and large swords, led villagers on a 12-day trek to the foot of the cliff. Villagers revived the dead girl with a prayer Lemier had taught them, and when word spread throughout the jungle, 587,000 people were saved in a single meeting led by Lemier. \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Read the rest at Lark News.<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So says Seinfeld\u2019s George Costanza. But whether or not he really believed that is hard to say. It\u2019s often hard to say whether or not the speaker really believes what they\u2019re saying when they\u2019re saying something that isn\u2019t true. Yesterday we discussed a currently circulating political falsehood, trying to discern whether it was repeated as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,22,29],"class_list":["post-3738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-agnotology","tag-indignation","tag-satanic-baby-killers"],"yoast_head":"\n'It's not a lie if you believe it'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So says Seinfeld's George Costanza. But whether or not he really believed that is hard to say. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'It's not a lie if you believe it'","description":"So says Seinfeld's George Costanza. But whether or not he really believed that is hard to say. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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