Placing one’s hand upon a Bible before taking an oath used to be a standard in so many American traditions. While we still do so for some of the highest offices in the land (President, for instance, and supreme court justice), but it has largely fallen by the wayside as the nation has tried to become more accommodating to other religious or non-religious peoples. In court we’ve moved on from placing a hand on the Bible to raising our right hand, and from all the corruption among politicians and lawyers I can’t say its an improvement.

What happens when honesty no longer matter in a culture? You get headlines like this one: “Supreme Court weighs whether lying to get citizenship can justify revoking it”. When I asked others what they thought of the headline, most responded “It depends on what they lied about”, which I found surprising since my knee jerk reaction was “Of course it is.” While merely anecdotal, the responses I received indicate that most people feel lying is acceptable, depending on how big the lie is.

Is this case, a woman and her husband gain citizenship claiming religious persecution, explaining that since her husband would not join their countries military (for religious reasons) that they were persecuted. The truth is, her husband had been in the military and was being sought for war crimes he committed while serving in that capacity, hence their real need to flee the country. I think most people would agree that such an egregious lie deserves a revocation of citizenship, and perhaps even exportation back to their homeland to face the charges. But what if the lie were something smaller?

Some have indicated that if the department of immigration concludes that if the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is the standard then a great many legal immigrants might be deported. I understand where those fears come from. Our government and judicial system is known to get things very wrong sometimes. That said, bad behavior cannot justify other bad behavior, and honesty is every person’s responsibility. In the words of Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor, “Tell the truth, everything else is a waste of time.”

Honesty can cause trouble and heart ache from time to time, but it is the one thing that helps us keep our moral compass pointing true north. When we start telling the truth and experience those difficult or embarrassing moments, we begin to think about how to avoid those kinds of situations in the future. When we take lying out of the list of options, it means that we have to change the way we live, work and relate so that we can always be honest without those awkward moments. And that, gentle reader, is exactly what God wants us. Proverbs 12.22 states:

“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.”

Do you want the Lord to delight in you? Then don’t start the habit of lying to smooth things over. If you have fallen into this habit, break it now and experience the Lord’s delight in you.

Food for thought:

For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” – 1 Peter 3.10-12