When Lying Becomes Lifestyle

The Left Wing and the Lying Tongue

Jerusalem is a city which is deeply committed to truth. The Ninth Commandment requires that we bear no false witness. Everywhere the Scriptures condemn deceit and lying. Athens has no such scruples. This is understandable.

Athens believes almost universally that the cosmos is the product of brute chance. The world is random. If the world is random, truth and truthfulness are at best useful conventions to be used for pragmatic reasons, when it advances one's cause or interests. When, however, truth and truthfulness become inconvenient, when they become an impediment to one's interests being advanced, they can be discarded at will.

In the public sphere, truth is a mere commodity to be used or discarded at will. Thankfully, the courts in Athens are still concerned with truth and truthfulness. But there have been times in the past—and maybe it remains true to this day—that the police have not been interested in the truth. We have seen the spectacle in recent days of an undercover officer who has confessed to lying on the witness stand around 150 times in order to get convictions and “put the buggers away.” He claims he was acting on orders from his superiors. His conscience is now troubling him deeply.

Left wing activists and degenerate politicians in Athens are notorious for lying. Deceit and mendacity are their clothes of choice. They have no conscience, no shame. It is all about achieving the goal, about getting one's way. For years the homosexual network has spread rumours about public figures, sportspeople, celebrities etc being closet homosexuals. The tactic is an attempt to make homosexuality more socially acceptable. Virtually every All Black captain, for example, has been the target of such slurs in recent decades.

After a while, people who live in such deceit become unable to distinguish between truth and lies. They lose the capacity for truthfulness as their consciences become deadened. Lies trip off the tongue without a second thought. They would pass every lie detector test. For them lying has become a natural part of life.

We have recently been subjected to the spectacle of Winston Peters being caught out lying repeatedly in public. No remorse. No apology. No shame. Lying has become a lifestyle choice—a way of living. Deceit and mendacity are useful tools to be employed to one's advantage whenever needed.

Most recently we have been treated to the effortless lying by the Minister of Finance who glibly told reporters that he had had no time to brief the Leader of the Opposition about the government guarantee of bank deposits. Things were moving so swiftly, he purred, we did not have time. Clark and Cullen wanted to secure some political advantage out of something which was forced upon them by Australian moves. So he did not brief the Leader of the Opposition in advance--and then lied about it to cover it up.

However, the truth came out. The Governor of the Reserve Bank told Dr Cullen that he was going to brief the Leader of the Opposition and Cullen explicitly forbade him. (Dr Bollard, being Governor of a legislatively independent Reserve Bank should have ignored Cullen and gone ahead, but he capitulated—but that's an example of poor judgment and possibly cowardice, not of deceit.) To his credit, the Governor later apologized to the Leader of the Opposition.

But Dr Cullen had told a barefaced lie to the public. It was told with glibness. It was told with an honest countenance. Lying has become natural. Dr Cullen is a true son of Athens.

When the Scriptures describe the wicked, it often characterises them as being “unjust and deceitful.” (For example, in Psalm 43: 1, we read: “Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation. Deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.”)

When men harden their hearts against God and turn their faces towards their immaterial idols, the law of God is rejected. As a consequence the truth becomes unimportant. It is a worthless commodity. Lies and mendacity are tools of trade. They become a normal part of life. Athens is a city built upon the Great Lie and animated by the Father of Lies. Deceit is the coin of the realm.

But Jerusalem is a city built upon foundations of justice and truth. That is why, eventually, Jerusalem will triumph in the earth. Deceit is self-defeating. Habitual deceit in the end destroys the mendacious. They fall into the very snares they lay for others. The way that Athens will end will be “not with a bang, but a whimper.”