TURNING IT AROUND

The Senses Novels deal with a number of moral issues. One of those issues is lies versus truth. In John 18:37-38 we read:

37“Then You are a king?” Pilate said. “You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.” 38“What is truth?” Pilate asked. And having said this, he went out again to the Jews and told them, “I find no basis for a charge against Him.

Pilate’s question remains with us today. Obviously, Jesus was referring to Himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life. Pilate was wrestling with a moral dilemma as to how to deal with what he knew was right and wrong and, in the process, trying to change the truth in his own mind.

This isn’t so different from what many, if not all, of us, do today. We justify any action we take that we know isn’t right by altering the truth. I don’t want anyone to misinterpret me here, changing the truth has its own name, it is called a lie.

When you quit fooling yourself and take a cold, hard look at what you do and say, how honest are you? How honest is anyone? We, all of us, say things that we know aren’t true to spare someone’s feelings and we call it a ‘little white lie.’ How many times have you lied by omission, not saying what should have been said?

I am not saying that we need to be purposely cruel. I am trying to make a point. What IS truth? Jesus had a way of taking God’s commandments and stretching them to cover a much greater area than they say. God says, “Do not bear false witness.” That literally means, don’t testify against someone falsely (lie about them.) That has been extrapolated to mean, “Don’t lie at all.”, which is likely something that Jesus would have said.

Here is the kicker, fiction, all fiction, is exactly that, lies. While it may depict actual events or things that are likely to happen, it isn’t something that IS, therefore, it is a lie. So, is writing or telling fiction wrong? Well, if it is, then David and Solomon are in big trouble. They described people, places, and things as other than what they actually were. Do you doubt it? This is in the very first part of the Song of Solomon:

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine;
3     your anointing oils are fragrant;
your name is oil poured out;

Does that sound like straight fact to you? It seems like a fanciful comparison to me. Fiction, if you will.

All of this leaves us with the same dilemma that Pontius faced, “What is truth?” How should we view truth and should there be ‘degrees’ of it? These are questions that I cannot answer. I leave it to you to make your own decisions.

KM