self-consciously to protect the emotional state of others. Ericsson’s wrote “Telling a friend he looks great when he looks like hell” is deliberately protecting the feelings of others. In all reality how can you assume what is beneficial for others and is it really protecting the feelings of others? For example, How about when you ask your husband if you look fat in a dress and he replies with no you look great but, you can see clearly that you look awful in the dress. Why are we justifying lies? Genuine friends or spouses accept your opinions and even in some instances are just looking for the simple true therefore, in the act of what you thought was comforting a friend or a spouse with a lie is only hurting them. If you can’t get the truth from a close friend or spouses, than who can you trust? Meanwhile, there are some white lies that are told in thought of helping others just as Ericsson’s explained, “a sergeant in Vietnam knew his men were killed at war but, still listed them as missing.” This white lie was thought to be helping the family financially by a receiving lifelong payment instead of a lump sum but, in all reality it hurts the family even more. Losing a loved one is emotionally hard. But who can rationalize what the victim’s family’s emotional needs are. They will never get closure. If this sergeant would have told the truth the family would have felt the emotional pain of their lost loved one as they grieved but, they would have been able to move forward in life instead of hoping that their loved ones might have been found. Money can never substitute the loss of a life. Justifying a lie doesn’t make it right.
Then there is the plain facts of lies being ignored as Ericsson explains Father Porter was sexually molesting children and the Catholic Church was aware of his pedophilia but they still decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and he was given fresh new children to abuse. This is an extreme example of what lies can lead to. The church was careless and because of plain facts being ignored many children were put in harm’s way and sexually molested by Porter. There is no justification in this lie. This was wrong in so many ways. The church was well aware of this lie and should have never gave the opportunity to Porter. This lie goes to show how extreme lying can be. The church was living this lie and in return so many children had to suffer because of the plain facts being ignored.
Lies are told to avoid confrontations, the possibility of hurting someone’s moral and even careless lies are lived while others have to suffer the consequences. We need to stand up and demand the truth and stop all the lies. Telling the truth needs to be implemented in are everyday life styles since, the trust is being lost in all these redundant lies.
(Ericsson)