Article July 9, 2007 Issue

THE SPIRITUAL POWER OF HONESTY

CURT WAHLBERG

Here are answers to some of the questions posed by Internet participants during a recent spirituality.com chat featuring CURT WAHLBERG, a teacher and practitioner of Christian Science from Los Angeles, California. Curt has been a frequent contributor to both the Sentinel and spirituality.com. In June, he took up duties as First Reader of The Mother Church in Boston. To hear the full chat, go to www.spirituality.com/chats/honesty. And for more from Curt on the subject, read his article, "My record of integrity during a taxing time," on spirituality.com (click on the link provided at the end of the chat).

Is it ever right to tell a little white lie?

I guess my way of answering that question is to pull back from an analysis of the situation in just human terms of the words we use, and really look at our attitude—and our expectancy of good being here for all of us. There's no danger out there that means we somehow need to shield ourselves or others from it by telling a "little white lie." And this is so radically spiritual, because in the human perspective, there do appear to be lots of things that we feel we maybe need to hide from our children. Or we just feel a relationship would be in a better position if this acquaintance or loved one didn't know a certain piece of information, and that's in their best interest, and so forth.

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