Lying
- Nephi obtains the brass plates by deceiving Zoram.
- "And there shall also be many which shall say: .. God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor ..."
- Moroni "thought it no sin that he should defend [the Nephites] by stratagem"
- Satan "telleth [us] that it is no sin to lie that ... [we] may destroy ..."
- "Thou shalt not lie; he that lieth and will not repent shall be cast out."
- "And if he or she shall lie, he or she shall be delivered up unto the law of the land."
- Liars among those destined for the Telestial Kingdom.
- "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."
- Stake Pres., "The Important Distinction between Lying & Lying for the Lord", LDS (Mormon) Stake Presidents Blog, January 2, 2014
- A semi-anonymous description of a doctrine called "Lying for the Lord". This is not an official doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is one man's description of the idea, which acknowledges a number of facts to develop an idea which, if true, would justify many examples of lying in church history. I have, as yet, no well-developed thoughts that completely embrace this idea, but the concept is not without merit based on what I have determined, (See Notes below.) and it is important to be familiar with as a philosophy of honesty that exists within the Church.
- A treatment of the topic of "Lying for the Lord" by FAIR. It is an interesting treatment as it both denies then confirms the doctrine. Since Lying for the Lord is not taught in any specific way, it is not any specific thing. One can interpret either that they are denying some specific, incorrect, idea, or that they are simply denying that anything related is taught in any official capacity. Either would be true. At the same time, they admit that valid justifications exist for lying, which would mean that we, theoretically, can lie for the Lord, in a doctrinally sound manner, even if these justifications never really are taught as an item of church doctrine.
- Joshua D. Greene and Joseph M. Paxton, "Patterns of neural activity associated with honest and dishonest moral decisions", PNAS, 2009
- Study supporting the idea that honesty my be a gift, rather than derived from determination and effort.
- Similarly, it may be that the honest in this study preferred losing to winning, a perceived self-sacrifice or selflessness, whereas the dishonest preferred winning. Mental activity, effort, was higher overall among the dishonest.
Notes
It is interesting to note that I am not aware that the scriptures specifically enjoin against lying as a whole, but rather enjoins against "bearing false witness against your neighbor", or against "[Deceiving] and [laying] in wait to catch, that ye may destroy". Despite this, most church literature on the subject of lying advocates a less nuanced approach. This may be simpler to understand, but the scriptures give instances where deception is used to advance the Lord's work, and the inclusion of qualifiers strongly suggests that "white" lies may actually have a place, whereby a lie is told in order to thwart the adversary and promote the work of the Lord. Based on the qualifiers used, we might imagine that a "white" (or good) lie, might be any lie which the spirit of the Lord prompts us to tell, which is not designed as a trap for our fellow-man, or which is designed to thwart the designs of the destroyer. My thoughts on this are not fully developed.
Lying as an item of prohibition seems to be closely related to trapping others. The Nephites seem to have been keenly aware of this, leading to the odd note in Alma 43:30 that Moroni "thought it no sin that he should defend [the Nephites] by stratagem". At least, this note always seemed odd to me, since strategem would seem an integral element of defense which would seem extremely permissible. However, if the Nephites linked strategem, or trapping, with lying, in a fundamental way, it would seem clear that Moroni, and/or historians writing about him, would need to develop clear reasoning as to why his course of action was permissible.
It should be noted that abusing trust or authority to deceive others for personal gain, or to hide our sins, would clearly be morally wrong, and is an example of Unrighteous Dominion. It is also worth noting that some exegesis of the Unforgivable Sin describes it as doing evil in the name of the Lord. That is, effectively, laying a trap for others by willfully lying by claiming that you are on the Lord's errand in order to lead people astray. One might say that this is lying taken to the utmost extreme.
Analyzing the worthiness of a lie based on its sacrificial economics, it is noteworthy that lying puts our trust at risk and destroys trust wherever it is known. Therefore, telling a lie involves an item of sacrifice, a penalty, and might be rightly considered a transgression, even if it is in accordance with the Lord's will. The sacrifice can only be worth making if the reward for the sacrifice is greater than what is lost. This cannot always be known in advance.