Conversatio Morum

It was more than just a look of incredulity; it was obvious that he didn’t believe a word I was saying.  “But, it’s the honest truth – I swear it is,” I persisted.  Whether I had given him prior reason to disbelieve me or not, I don’t know, but the fact is that he was not taking my words at face value.  And I too am a sceptic when it comes to attestations and protestations of truth when the information is not congruent with my expectations. 
 
In the western world persons appearing before a court of law are ‘sworn in’ prior to giving testimony.  Under oath and penalty of perjury they declare to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”  I’ve always wondered why we don’t just settle for telling the truth -- why does the telling of truth need to be hedged with the addition of “the whole truth” and “nothing but the truth?”
 
I suppose it is because the pure and simple truth is not always what is spoken and, for many people, truth is often tailored to fit their needs and self interest.  In order to enhance the believability or reliability of their words we seek some assurance that it is not just a convenient partial truth; that it is nothing other than the unadulterated, unembellished, unaltered, un-nuanced truth.  In other words, we want it to be the honest truth.  But, can anything be essentially true if it isn’t honest in the first place?
 
Truth often becomes subverted when people value the convenience of being able to replace uncomfortable truth with utilitarian fabrication.  After all, the truth often hurts, and it feels so much better when such truth is reshaped into realities that seem to be more palatable, pleasing, and pragmatic. 
 
Often it doesn’t take much effort to “dress up” the truth.  In a recent conversation with a colleague we remarked on the tendency of an acquaintance of ours to embellish and exaggerate accounts of his experiences in order to make a good story, a saleable story.  The problem is that those stories are not the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, he doesn’t present the honest truth.  Instead his stories are distortions, characterizations, and misrepresentations of reality.  Recently an American political candidate was caught embellishing on an experience, the telling of which was far from the real truth.  When called to account it was reported that she had simply miss-spoken.  It wasn’t an untruth – it was simply a “slip of speech.”
 
I really shouldn’t be too critical or harsh on people who play with the truth because as I have been thinking about the honest truth and living a truth-telling life, I have tried hard to go an entire day without miss-representing the truth, the whole, truth and nothing but the truth -- but I have failed.  It is so convenient to give utterance to “partial” falsehoods, to reshape the truth with half-truths and plausible lies.
 
The late psychiatrist, Scott Peck, proposed that evil is manifest through the persistent and accumulative denial of truth.[i]    Evil masquerades as truth in disguises that are fabricated with lies.  We live in times that are characterized by false promises, misleading advertising, political distortions, economic subterfuge, interpersonal and public deception perpetrated as much by institutions and systems as by ourselves.  Into our times Jesus speaks, as He has spoken to people and cultures before us, of our deep-seated need for truth to set us free from bondage.[ii]  Ultimately the respite, convenience, advantage and appearance wrought by miss-spoken truth and blatant lies creates a prison from which there is no escape – the prison is us, the cumulative consequence of our untruthful thoughts and words and actions, evil.
 
Jesus challenges us to be people who are characterized by truth, the truth we believe and the truth we speak and live –

 
You have heard that it was said to the people long ago,
            Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.
But I tell you, do not swear at all:
Either by heaven for it is God’s throne;
            Or by the earth, for it is his footstool;
            Or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
And do not swear by your head for you cannot even make one hair white or black.
Simply
Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’
And your ‘No,’No;
Anything beyond this comes from the evil one.[iii]