The truth is very important – there is no doubt about that at all. I believe that in most situations, telling the truth is the right thing to do. But what if deception is done out of love, to protect someone from evil? What if the person does not deserve to be told the truth? What if someone is not ready for the truth? There should be some very minor exceptions to truth telling in certain scenarios.
“Now, no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft” (Hosseini, page 17). In The Kite Runner, Baba strongly believed this and seemed to live by these words up until his death. This becomes particularly ironic when Amir finds out that he had a socially illegitimate brother, and found out that Baba, who had stolen the truth from everyone, was the biggest liar in his life after all.
Not only did Baba steal the truth from Amir and Hassan, but by doing so, he was also inadvertently stealing many other aspects of their lives from them, even aspects of his own life. Knowing the truth may have changed Baba’s attitude and parenting style, allowing him to show similar forms of affection towards both of his sons rather than taking his frustration out on Amir. Amir would’ve gotten the chance to get to know Hassan as something other than his servant and playmate. However, knowing the truth meant that society could have shunned the whole family, and Baba would not be in the state of prestige that he was in. He may have lost his business and his adopted brother Ali. Amir may have actually stood up to Assef to prevent Hassan’s rape. Maybe Amir would even develop different character traits, independent of his father’s parenting style, and have different approaches to the scenarios he threw himself into. There are so many alternative possibilities to what could’ve happened, yet Baba chose to not be truthful.
Based on the Afghanistan culture and society that Khaled Hosseini describes in the book, the worldview of the characters within the story are similar, especially among those who were wealthy and on the higher-class of society. The worldview of these characters, such as Baba, General Taheri, and Rahim Khan, are centered around the honor-shame culture that exists in Afghanistan. Because Baba was scared of tarnishing his social image, he chose to keep his secret untold. However, I believe that Baba should have told his sons the truth, regardless of the repercussions on his business and social status. He owed them the truth because it was morally wrong for him to keep such vital information from his sons. Baba’s situation did not fit into the exceptions to truth telling.
In very specific circumstances, there should be exceptions to whether or not someone chooses to tell the truth. One main exception would be when it must be done to prioritize another obligation, such as love or faith, over the obligation of telling the truth. Another main exception would be when someone doesn’t deserve the truth. And the last, when someone is not ready to know the truth – for example, a child who may not fully grasp a concept. Take Corrie ten Boom’s situation. Corrie and her family helped Jews to hide and escape during the Holocaust. During this time, she repeatedly lied to the Gestapo about hiding Jews in her home. The ten Booms were placed in a rather awkward moral conflict – save these Jews’ lives, or tell the truth. This comes one of the main exceptions – to prioritize the obligation to save the lives of the innocent Jews, or to tell the truth. The obligation to save lives proved more important than the obligation to tell the truth. The Gestapo did not deserve the truth either, as their intentions were incorrectly placed, and what they were doing was morally wrong. We see stories of deception in the Bible as well. Joshua 2 tells the story of Rahab, where she hides two of Joshua’s spies and lies to the soldiers of Jericho in order to protect them. Later on, she ends up in Hebrews 11’s “Hall of Faith” for her protection of these spies.
I’m not saying that we should be lying all the time. The truth really is important and should be told in most situations, but there are definitely exceptions. According to an article by the Theology of Work Project, “God holds truth and love together in a perfect marriage” (Theology of Work Project). These two things, in a perfect world, have no conflict whatsoever. However, in this sinful world that we live in, there comes a need for judgment on when we need to tell the truth and when deception should be involved. Because of the nature of sin, love and truth are in conflict. This ends up with special circumstances, like those that I have stated and used as examples, that may require deception or exceptions when it comes to truth telling.
The truth is important for so many reasons. It helps pull people closer together, develop relationships filled with trust, and it is what a full-functioning society needs. It is a biblical principle, and it is a part of my worldview of how I see truth telling. Yet I cannot explicitly state that truth must always be told. The Kite Runner gave us an example of the consequences of a society where characters lie to each other and show us the outcomes of the guilt that follows. Given the fallen nature of the world, we are thrown into dilemmas where we must ponder and choose between different obligations that are presented to us. In these very unique, rare situations, the choice might be to deceive and tell lies. Otherwise, the truth should be told in any other circumstance, without any exception.
Link to Rough Draft: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DCzjcv9i0kRzB9tmhZfnl6412Vpb70VDqX9-116rSXA/edit?usp=sharing
Reflection: This was quite a challenging essay to write. It was hard to put into words the ideas I had, and I also wasn’t quite sure how to articulate clearly what I wanted to say. I ended up doing a little bit of research, which helped me sort out my ideas and what I wanted to write down within the essay. Another thing that was challenging was creating a stance that was strong and opinionated, but also one that didn’t stray away from what I believe. However, I’m pretty proud of the ideas that I was able to write down into the essay, and of how I was able to veer away from a more simple, “just tell the truth” kind of opinion. I think it creates an interesting essay to read.
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