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Bruised_Reed
Guest
An example of this would be people hiding Jews from Nazis and lying about their knowledge of this. There is no sin in this. The Nazis had no right to the information.
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tuopaolo
Guest
Lying is a sin no matter what, even to save Jews from Nazis.
My understanding though is that deception is different. One can deceive someone without lying and I don’t think deception is always a sin. For example, one might try to deceive someone while playing a game of poker by bluffing. This is not a sin.
My understanding though is that deception is different. One can deceive someone without lying and I don’t think deception is always a sin. For example, one might try to deceive someone while playing a game of poker by bluffing. This is not a sin.
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AlanFromWichita
Guest
That’s a very interesting point of view, but it doesn’t make sense to me.
If I feign ignorance to save an innocent life, that is sinful because it is a lie.
If I mislead without actually, technically lying in order to win a game and possibly money from the other person, that is not sinful because – why?
What makes the difference? Are sly, clever words OK as long as you agree in advance with the other party that you are in a game that involved deception? When Satan tempted Eve, and then Christ, he told them truths out of context and thereby sought to deceive, did he not?
Remember when Bill Clinton pointed his finger at us and said, “I did not have sex with that woman?” According to a strict literal definition of “sex” he got from one of his prior court cases, he was technically not lying (or at least as far as we know). Therefore, even though the president deceived millions of people to save his own image in their eyes, it was not “technically” a lie.
By these standards, could I not justify practically any kind of misleading and deceit as long as I phrase it cleverly enough that I really didn’t mean what it sounded like to a reasonable observer?
Alan
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