Two people lied to a friend of mine today before Mass, and this couple is in their older middle ages. They lied easily and willingly. We knew they were lying about a situation which happened last week. Sadly, they did not know we knew the whole story, so they lied. Why?
A young man lied to me about two months ago in the parish, seriously. His lie was exposed two months later; duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.
A young man and a young woman in a shop lied to me two weeks ago about the service on my phone. When I called customer service in Delhi, I was told the truth about the phone usage. When I tried to return the phone as it was not sold to purpose, I was told there was a no return policy. I had the phone for two weeks when I attempted to return it.
Customer service in Bombay told me one thing, phone shop in Kent another. Then, I went in another day and another young man told me that the other sales persons were wrong, but he still could not take back the phone. I have a phone which is not suited to my needs.
An optometrist lied to me last week. He told me my eyes had changed to the point where I needed to change the prescription taken in the shop seven days before. He lied to cover up a mistake from his co-worker, who did not do a good job on the first eye test or the makers, who did not follow the prescription. I knew the glasses were wrong as soon as I put them on, but could not get back to the shop until morning and had picked them up at the end of the day, thinking my eyes had to adjust. The sight test or the writing down of the test was in error. Yet, the man lied.
I knew this to be a lie and in order to get the glasses changed, as they are wrong and I paid megabucks for them, with the help of a friend. I just went along with the pretense in order to get these fixed and was polite and just listened. I said nothing to agree or disagree. Arguing gets one nowhere in England. The customer is not considered as having any rights or even a brain.
How much nicer it would have been for him to say, "I am sorry, but we made a mistake on your prescription and we will take care of this immediately."
A real estate agent lied to me about his houses he was fixing up and selling.
Lying is the status quo here and perhaps in other places, like certain areas in the States. I have been lied to by young people and old, but Catholics and pagans, by lay people and clergymen.
Why and how did this happen? How is it that when I was in Ireland, many adults instructed me to lie about residency and work, saying they do this all the time-lying to get jobs or to stay in America for long stretches of time? This happened just over a year ago.
Deceit starts within a person. We cannot lie even teeny tiny white lies and expect Truth, Who is a Person to come and dwell within us.
I am amazed. I was amazed. Lies destroy marriages, communities, parishes, if people care.
One cannot trust liars, especially those who lie easily and consistently. A community or society cannot function when those who serve it lie consistently with intent to deceive.
I know some Catholics who lie about their taxes. They tell me they do not have to claim money made in cash. I have pointed this out, but now realize this is a habit with these people.
The British Government and the American Government seem to be making a habit out of lying. Our prime minister told us no clergyman who in conscience disagrees with SSM will have to perform a marriage. There are no safeguards in the bill for such. There is vague language and I highlight the dubious phrases which open up judicial interpretation in The Hague.
Clause 2 provides for a number of protections for religious organisations:
- No person could be compelled to opt in to any involvement in same sex marriages, or from opting out of any involvement in same sex marriages (clause 2 also defines what are opt in and opt-out activities);
- No person could be compelled to conduct a same sex marriage; be present at, carry out, or otherwise participate in, a same sex marriage; or consent to a relevant marriage being conducted;
- The Equality Act 2010 would be amended to prevent discrimination claims under the Act from being brought against people who refuse to do any of the activities referred to above.
Clause 3 amends section 26 of the Marriage Act 1949 to authorise civil same sex marriages and without any opting in necessary. The revised section 26 will therefore authorise:
- religious marriages for opposite sex couples only in registered buildings;
- civil marriages for all couples in a register office;
- civil marriages for all couples in, for example, a hotel or other approved premises;
- religious marriages for opposite sex couples by the Quakers or the Jewish religion;
- marriages opposite sex couples, one of whom is house-bound or detained;
- civil marriages for all couples, one of whom is house-bound or detained;
- marriages for opposite sex couples in a church or chapel of the Church of England or the Church in Wales.
Clause 4 and Schedule 1 insert a new section 26A into the Marriage Act 1949 which would allow religious organisations to opt in to performing same sex marriages. The religious organisation would have to apply to the Registrar General for a building certified as a place of religious worship to be registered as authorised to solemnise same sex marriage. If the necessary conditions are met, the Registrar General would then have to register the building. The Church of England and the Church of Wales would not, however, be allowed to opt in under this provision, although the Church in Wales would be able to conduct same sex marriages under clause 8.
Clause 5 inserts a new section 26B to the Marriage Act 1949 which would allow for religious same sex marriages to take place without any opt in necessary in certain circumstances:
- Marriages in accordance with the religious practices of Quakers, as long as the recording clerk of the Society of Friends in London has consented to marriages of same sex couples;
- Marriages in Jewish religious ceremony, as long as the relevant governing authority has consented to marriages of same sex couples (the relevant governing authority would be the person or persons designated as such by the secretary of the synagogue); and
- Marriages for all religions, except the Church of England and Church in Wales, where one or both of the same sex couples is house-bound or detained, and the relevant governing authority has given consent to same sex marriages.
Clause 6 amends Part 5 of the Marriage Act 1949 to permit same sex marriages in naval, military and air force chapels. Under Part 5, a marriage may take place in such a chapel which has been licensed for the solemnisation of marriages according to the rites of the Church of England or the Church in Wales, or registered for the solemnisation of other marriages. Clause 6 also amends Part 5 allow for the registration of military chapels for the solemnisation of marriages of same sex couples, with an exception for the Church of England and the Church in Wales.
Clause 7 amends section 1 of the Marriage (Registrar General’s Licence) Act 1970 so that the Registrar General can only authorise a religious marriage of a same sex couple if the relevant governing authority has consented to marriages of same sex couples. Section 1 does not apply to the Church of England or the Church in Wales.
Clause 8 sets out the procedure by which the Church in Wales could opt in to performing same sex marriages. The Lord Chancellor would have to be satisfied that the Governing Body of the Church in Wales had resolved that the law should be changed to allow for the marriage of same sex couples according to the rites of the Church in Wales. He would then be able to make an order permitting the Church in Wales to perform same sex marriages.
Clause 9 would permit couples in a civil partnership to convert them into marriages.
Lying creates mistrust. Lying indicates something is wrong with the soul. Lying may be connected to serious self-deceit. Here is the CCC.
ARTICLE 8
THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.253It was said to the men of old, "You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn."254
I. LIVING IN THE TRUTH
2465 The Old Testament attests that God is the source of all truth. His Word is truth. His Law is truth. His "faithfulness endures to all generations."255 Since God is "true," the members of his people are called to live in the truth.256
2466 In Jesus Christ, the whole of God's truth has been made manifest. "Full of grace and truth," he came as the "light of the world," he is the Truth.257 "Whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness."258 The disciple of Jesus continues in his word so as to know "the truth [that] will make you free" and that sanctifies.259 To follow Jesus is to live in "the Spirit of truth," whom the Father sends in his name and who leads "into all the truth."260 To his disciples Jesus teaches the unconditional love of truth: "Let what you say be simply 'Yes or No.'"261
2467 Man tends by nature toward the truth. He is obliged to honor and bear witness to it: "It is in accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons . . . are both impelled by their nature and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct their whole lives in accordance with the demands of truth."262
2468 Truth as uprightness in human action and speech is called truthfulness, sincerity, or candor. Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words, and in guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.
2469 "Men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another."263 The virtue of truth gives another his just due. Truthfulness keeps to the just mean between what ought to be expressed and what ought to be kept secret: it entails honesty and discretion. In justice, "as a matter of honor, one man owes it to another to manifest the truth."264
2470 The disciple of Christ consents to "live in the truth," that is, in the simplicity of a life in conformity with the Lord's example, abiding in his truth. "If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth."265
and there is more in the CCC. Take time to read the section.
2482 "A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving."281 The Lord denounces lying as the work of the devil: "You are of your father the devil, . . . there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."282
