LITTLE WHITE LIES
Smitten By Faith Issue # 0000102 July 19th 2025
It seems that the biggest ‘white’ lie which is said most often around the world in any language is the phrase, ‘I am fine.’ This is closely followed closely by another little white lie, ‘I was stuck in traffic.’ Other common white lies are, ‘You look great’, ‘I never received your message’ and so on.
All just little white lies – harmless. Really ? So why am I even bothering to write about this ?
What is a lie ? And what is a ‘white’ lie ?
A lie is a false statement. Not a truth.
The colour ‘white’ is symbolic of innocence and purity whereas, according to the great saint, Augustine of Hippo, ‘…a lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving.’
So does a ‘white’ lie mean that a lie can still be innocent and pure even though the speaker knows that the statement is false and voicing an untruth? Is a white lie – albeit a small or harmless lie made to be polite or not to hurt the feelings of another person acceptable ?
Whether this is right or wrong depends on how this is viewed. There is the strict moral approach of Christian ethics to be balanced against secular world philosophers and at the other end, the more practical utilitarian modern approach – the do-no-harm and other real world situations.
ST AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
The Triumph of Saint Augustine of Hippo, oil on canvas (c. 1664) by Claudio Coello ( 1642-1693); Prado Museum.In this painting, raised on a cloud, St Augustine triumphantly combats Hell and Paganism.
I turn first to the philosophical and theological writings of the great St Augustine ( 354 CE to 430 CE ) who lived more than 2,000 years ago and yet his writings are still deeply relevant and essential today in our 21st century world. St Augustine had a zero tolerance for lies. He held that the naked truth must be told whatever the consequences. In other words, telling the truth is a moral absolute. For St Augustine, lying corrupts the soul and is never justified. We are all made in the image of God and this surely compels us to act and reflect God’s spiritual nature. God never lies. We should not.
There are no grey or blurred lines for this great saint. St. Augustine directs that in difficult situations where saying the truth might cause harm, then, silence should be observed. He goes so far to say that if we can’t keep silence, then we must tell the unwelcome truth. So be it. Do not lie. Even if the truth may cause death to the recipient hearing this ! He says that it is better that the body of the sick man should perish rather than the soul of the liar. Gosh ! Would that we have the same deep moral clarity and conviction of this saint and theologian !
St Augustine is also famous for another illustration he gave on this point. He writes about a hypothetical case of a person whose life is threatened by another. So this victim asks you whether he can hide in your house. He seeks safety and shelter with you. You agree. But, then later, the killer comes looking for his victim in your house. This killer accosts you and asks you if this victim he is looking for is hiding with you. What do you say ? What can you say ? There is no equivocation. St Augustine says that you cannot lie. You cannot deny that the victim is not there. But, you can keep silent. Or you can say that you know where he is but you will not tell. Or there is perhaps even a third way ? You can try to deflect the question by asking another question such as for example, how would you know where his victim is? If none of this works; this might put you personally in jeopardy with this killer. So if eventually when the killer persists to ask you, you cannot lie even if this means that someone else will ? That’s a tough one indeed.
THE SCHOLASTICS AND ST THOMAS ACQUINAS
So, this is where to lie or not becomes really difficult. By the Middle Ages, a group of medieval ( 12th to the 17th centuries ) Christian thinkers - theologians and philosophers - who used systematic reasoning and Aristotelian logic to explain Christian doctrine came up with a less rigid and strict approach to lying. They were known as the ‘Scholastics’ and they included St Thomas Acquinas, St Anselm of Canterbury and William of Ockham among others. The Scholastics respected St Augustine’s absolute approach on not lying BUT they also tried to refine, modify and nuance their views in order to reconcile this absolute morality with the complexities of our having to live our humdrum daily lives. In other words, the Scholastics said that there were various gradations to sin itself. Not all sins are equally bad and not all lying constitutes mortal sins.
Saint Thomas Acquinas, Fountain of Wisdom, oil on canvas by Antoine Nicolas (1648); Notre Dame de Paris, Paris.
The painting of St. Thomas Acquinas above reflects the fervour of the Catholics towards the Dominican friar who studied and taught theology at the University of Paris in the mid-12th century around the same time as the opening of the magnificent Notre-Dame cathedral where this painting is now perfectly located. In the painting, St. Thomas is seated, holding a crucifix in his right hand and an open book in his left. His title, ‘Doctor Angelicus’ is inscribed on the pedestal. You can see the sun and golden chain of Saint Thomas, iconic symbols of how his teaching enlightened the Church.
Now, let’s look at what this very influential saint Thomas Aquinas said about the subject of lying. In his ‘Summa Theologica’ St Augustine defines and evaluates lying from both the moral and theological viewpoints. He says:
‘A lie is a statement at variance with the mind.’
‘Every lie is a sin, though not every lie is a mortal sin.’
This means that a lie is when a person says something they believe to be false, regardless of whether it is factually true or false. As for the morality of lying, St. Thomas Acquinas takes a strict view but he classifies lies into 3 types – all of which are morally wrong – even through with differing degrees of severity. All lies are therefore sins because they go against truth; but their level of ‘badness’ could differ.
· Malicious lies which are made to harm others
· Jocose lies – told in jest even as a joke or exaggeration but morally wrong nonetheless – even though less serious
· Officious lie – when we lie to help someone or to avoid harm. These lies are the least sinful but still cannot be justified in Acquinas’ view.
THE AGE OF REASON – IMMANUEL KANT AND JOHN LOCKE
Left: Immanuel Kant, oil on canvas ( circa 1790’)s, artist unknown but probably Elisabeth von Stägemann (Schule von Anton Graff; from the Public Domaine.
Right : Portrait of John Locke, oil on canvas by Godfrey Kneller (1697); The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.
Now, fast forward to the 18th century and we have the great German philosopher, Immanuel Kant ( 1724-1804), a Lutheran whose thoughts and writings made him a key figure of the ‘Enlightenment Movement’ or the ‘Age of Reason’, a major cultural and intellectual school of thought which took hold in Europe in the 18th century. Aside from Kant who is considered the founder of modern philosophy, the Age of Reason included Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke and David Hume among others.
Strangely for a liberal philosopher, Kant held a very strict moral position on lying. For him, telling the truth was a moral duty – with no exceptions. For Kant, lying violates universal moral law. In his ‘Metaphysical Principles of Virtue’, he wrote :
‘ By a lie a man throws away and, as it were, annihilates his dignity as a man.’
Kant’s cites the same example given earlier at the beginning of this essay about a killer coming to your door to ask whether the victim is hiding in your house ( he is ! ) and the answer according to Kant is unchanged from that of St Augustine thousands of years earlier. Kant says : ‘ You must not lie. Not even to save a life!’
So, just like that of the 4th century St Augustine, Kant’s views in the 18th century are no different – when it comes to lying. His approach is just as rigid and uncompromising. There are no exceptions – however ‘white’ the lie; however good the reason. Kant says that if everyone lies, then truth would lose all meaning and we will have chaos.
On the other hand, John Locke, the 18th century English philosopher and physician also known as the ‘father of liberalism’ who was also one of the Enlightened Movement took a more pragmatic approach to lying. Locke was not an absolutist and his general approach is that truth is a moral duty and an untruth is a breach of moral responsibility. However, Locke was practical too so he did say that, based on natural law and reason, we need to look at the intention, context and consequence behind the act.
THE CATHOLIC TRADITION
The Catholic Church teaches that lying, in general, is an offense against truth and charity. The Catholic tradition follows the Eighth Commandment which prohibits lying.
‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour’.
So, a lie is never justified; it cannot rightly be done even for a good end. Little white lies or minor lies told to spare someone's feelings or avoid minor inconvenience are still considered sins although they are not typically classified as mortal sins. Sinful, but not always mortal; not considered as grave as lies that cause significant harm - they still constitute a failure to uphold the virtue of truthfulness.
THE FIRST LIE
‘Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise’, Oil on canvas by Benjamin West (1791); National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
‘The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise’ is a beautiful neoclassical painting by Benjamin West, completed in 1791 which manages to impart the biblical drama and emotional intensity of the loss of mankind’s innocence when Adam and Eve are driven out of their paradise in the Garden of Eden.
‘But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.”’
Genesis 3:4
The above words from the Book of Genesis is pivotal to explain the fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. The devil ( the serpent ) directly contradicts God and lies to Eve by saying: “You will not surely die.” ‘
With this lie, the serpent then sets up Eve ( who persuades Adam ) for the fall – when together they eat the forbidden fruit.
Christians consider this to be the first lie. This lie represents the loss of innocence and the beginning of sin ( the original sin ) for mankind. Earlier, in Genesis 2:17, God who had given both Adam and Eve the most wondrous Garden of Eden, had commanded Adam not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God told Adam, ‘ …in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.’
The Book of Genesis does not state how Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden, but artists ( just as Benjamin West ) usually portray the Archangel Michael as the agent of God’s wrath. The sinners wear ‘coats of skins’ so that they could stand unashamed in his presence. The serpent, now cursed among creatures, slithers away. Above the two sinners, you can see the sharp beam of light - the ‘flaming sword’ in Genesis. In the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, humanity is now separated from the direct presence of God.
‘ He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.’
Genesis 3:24
So, the first sin - original sin – began with the first lie. Falsehood and untruth underpins the root cause of humanity’s fall from grace. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden believed in the serpent’s lie and with their disobedience, rejected God’s truth and thereby committed humanity’s original sin. We have inherited this fallen state. But, fear not. Our restoration from this brokenness is also the central theme of Christianity – that of salvation, grace and redemption at the end of time when Christ will come again.
I end this essay with a big AMEN !
Editor’s Note :
Dear Reader
Thank you for reading this edition of SMITTEN BY FAITH.
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