Will Rogers said there were three kinds of lies, Ordinary Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics. And he made it clear that they were in the proper order, that Statistics were the most evil. As a Mathematician who has studied Statistics, it would seem that he has leveled a shotgun at me. I believe it was also he who said, "figures don't lie, but liars figure." The MBA's at Enron, WorldCom and others come quickly to mind. It may not only be the Statisticians but also the MBA's and Accountants that will stretch the figures.
I maintain that Will Rogers was only seventy five percent right. That's pretty good. A 750 batting average would put you at the top of most leagues. There is a fourth kind of lie, Tainted Truth and I am sure it is the most despicable of the four because it is not only a lie, it is presented as the truth by using scraps of truth to hide the lie.
There are men and women I respect because of the creativity they have brought to mankind. One of the few men who have misled people I respect, if not the only one is Sefton Delmer. He was one of the British propaganda guru's of the Second World War, and possibly one of the greatest of any nationality and time. He led the "Black" programs, called such because the origin and thrust of the message was "blacked out."
These were the radio stations, leaflets and newspapers that were designed to look and sound loyal to the Nazi's yet get across the message the Allies wanted the Germans to hear. His book is called "Black Boomerang" because he believes some of the lies he and his people spread are believed throughout the world to this day. If you want to see one, it is that the German Army did not support Hitler. You will even see this in history books, published as truth. This was a lie created by Delmer and his group.
Let's say someone dropped a leaflet or broadcast a program saying, "This is the British and we say Hitler is a mishandling the war." First, this would be a banned document or radio station. People in occupied Europe were forbidden to listen to or read these. Possession of such a leaflet could mean prison. This was the kind of thing that BBC did and it was effective in some arenas.
But Delmer and the "Black Programmers" would approach this in a different manner. They would tell how the brave, courageous German Armies were fighting to save the Fatherland. In the middle of an extensive discussion of bravery they would make a statement like, "Because of the Fuehrer's order, these men stood fast and were slaughtered without any gain. He forbad them to retreat to save their lives and fight another day."
It showed that the Army would be doing better without Hitler. And they played on the idea that the military was sold out in WWI. They lost WWI because of the politicians. There was an implication that they were loosing this one for the same reason. The idea was to create unrest against Hitler. As an aside this concept of the WWI sellout was preached by Hitler when he was reaching for power. This made it more credible.
By placing the lie, what they called "dirt" in a wrapper of cover, cover, cover, cover, the dirt was only noticeable to the most astute. The package that is thus produced is tainted truth.
So What Does This Have To Do With The Gospel?
Suppose that I posted a writing that said that Mohammed was the only true prophet. Or I wrote that Wicca's worship the same God we worship. Maybe I would say that Joseph Smith's writings are from God. Maybe I would say that Satan is the scape-goat and has a part in redemption. There would be an outcry from the group. I sincerely hope there would be an outcry.
But maybe I write a post that is good teaching, through and through, except for one small portion that is a despicable but well disguised and terrible lie. Maybe I could use misappropriated scripture, our culture, training or background to help me hide the lie. Let me give you some ways to spot truth that has been tainted.
Prov 8:9
9 They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.
(KJV)
One of the ways of tainting is to make the words complicated. Make it hard to follow. Intimidate the reader. Let him think, "This must be truth that I am not astute enough to understand." Twist words and play with the concept that nobody knows the real meaning. Then you can insert some lies and they will not be questioned. This is the devil's way. I have a good vocabulary and I read at a graduate level. When I see a post that I can't understand, or one that has too many words that are too big, a red flag goes up. I check it very carefully. It is probably designed to confuse and that usually means it hides lies.
