It Was Not Me

It Was Not Me

There is a lot of information about deception. Deception to me is lying. Studies show us that everybody lies. About 2/3 of the population has lied in the last few days. How many of you have lied in the last few days? How many have not? If your lying about lying, there is really a big problem.

Lying to people has almost become the normal thing to do, especially among teenagers. How many of you think lying to your parents is no big deal? How many think there is a difference between a white lie and a big lie? I know you do, give me some examples? Lying has become so common we have given different levels of lies. Here are just a few kinds of lies.

A lie by mistake - The person believes they are being truthful, but what they are saying is not true.

Omission - leaving out relevant information. Easier and least risky. It does not involve inventing any stories. It is passive deception and less guilt is involved.

Restructuring or Distorting the context-Saying something in sarcasm, changing the characters, or the altering the scene.

Denial-refusing to acknowledge a truth. The extent of denial can be quite large, they may be lying only to you just this one time or they may be lying to themselves.

Minimization-reducing the effects of a mistake, a fault, or a judgment call.

Exaggeration-representing as greater, better, more experienced, more successful.

Fabrication-deliberately inventing a false story.

Lying is nothing new. In fact we can go back in history and find evidence that people were trying to either set an example or teach others about lying.

There was one man, Diogenes of Sinope, and he was a controversial figure. His father minted coins for a living, and when Diogenes took to "defacement of the currency," he was banished from Sinope.[1] After being exiled, he moved to Athens to debunk cultural conventions. Diogenes modelled himself on the example of Hercules. He believed that virtue was better revealed in action than in theory. He used his simple lifestyle and behavior to criticise the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt society. He went on a journey looking for something, does anyone know what he was looking for? Here is a hint, he was known as carrying a lamp? What was he looking for? Some say he was looking for an honest man. Many books have stated he died before ever finding one.

Confucius (551-479 BC) He was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history. The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice, and sincerity. Confusious was said to teach people about believing, being honest, and having a belief that people should be honest. There were hundred of schools names after him that taught morality, honesty, and justice. His sayings are still around today. Why was it necessary to teach honesty? People lie.

Now that we have new types of communication (email, facebook, facetime, cell phones, twitter, and many other things), do you think that lies or deception are bettter or worse? I do not know if lieing is any different now than it was before all of the new communication. I do know that people lie all the time. I was studying a man by the name of Jeff Hancock. He said there are really three types of lies in todays culture. They are called, Butlers, Sock Puppet, and Chinese Water Army. What are these?

Let us start with the Butlers. Butlers to me are similar to white lies. It is like texting-I am on my way.You and I both know we probably did not move when we said that. Here is another- I gotta go. You do not have to go you just do not want to talk to that person anymore. I will call you back. I always mean to call back but I never do. You would call these white lies. They really do not mean anything. Some of you do them unintentionally and some of you tell those types of lies not to hurt anyones feelings. We justify lieing so we want hurt peoples feelings. The butler represents a buffer between us and someone else. In the butler case it is to protect people. We are going to see what the Bible has to say about that in a moment. To me I correlate white lies and butlers together.

Now there is the sock puppet. What is the sock puppet? It is easier for me to give you an example. R J Ellory was the bestselling British author at one time. He was caught praising his own books on Amazon using a number of pseudonyms while slamming the books of his competitors. Ellory used at least two pseudonyms, including "Nicodemus Jones" and "Jelly Bean," to heap praise on his works, including the book -A Quiet Belief in Angels,- an award-winning 2008 book which the author himself called through an alias, a modern masterpiece,chilling. Whatever else it might do, it will touch your soul he said, again through an alias, this according to industry newsletter Shelf Awareness. He made up his own reviews.