(November 19, 2011 at 11:48 am)Milky Tea Wrote: It would be yes because there are some situations where there is little benefit to inviting confrontation and this is one of them. As your story didn't include you correcting your Grandfather I can't help but think that you also recognised this.
AtheistAtheist Wrote:Yes, but this was not a particularly good lie. If she asked "what church do you go to?" that would have made the conversation as badly as it possibly could. I would not have been able to answer that, and at that point I would have been very pissed at him for putting me in that situation like that. I have no problem with telling a white lie to avoid a situation, but only if it is a good lie. The situation could have been better avoided without lying. Saying "he's not into church" would have been a much better response. Sometimes the best lie, is the truth, as they say.
Since no christian has weighed in on this yet I would like to say this, did he really lie or was he trying to protect you from an embarrassing situation, at least what he conceived as embarrassing for you. Even in a christian worldview not everything is black and white. Let's look at it from your position, if your grandfather bumped into you and several of your friends, and he was wearing some clothes that in your opinion were terrible, what would you do? Tell him that his clothing looked terrible knowing your friends would laugh at him or would you cut that possibility off and say hey you look great and save him from a possible embarrassment. Sometimes a perceived lie is not a lie but love in disguise.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.
