There has been a bit of furor this week over Christian blogger, Rev. Scottie, going undercover using an alias in order to prove the lie behind the commenting policy at an ODM site. In fairness, it is similar in methodology as the brouhaha when that same ODM site created an pseudonymous “ECM” site while falsely accusing other sites of hiding behind anonymity.
Very little of the back-and-forth regarding the latest incident has been all that interesting or fruitful: Rev. Scottie proved that water is wet, while creating unnecessarily additional animosity from the already siege-minded ODM site. Yes, I laughed, initially, but then I had a bit of pause when considering all the issues.
However, during this a question arose which I think could be discussed, and I believe is relevant to living in modern society: Can Christians work in jobs in which some level of deception is required? Some examples:
Security: Police and federal investigators often must go undercover to either investigate crimes which have occurred, or – more importantly – to prevent larger crimes from occurring. There have been numerous examples in recent years of terrorist plots foiled by undercover work. Necessarily, those going undercover must live a completely different life, and live it convincingly enough to keep their physical lives intact. Can a Christian work in such a job while maintaining a life of holiness? Can our society maintain law and order – and prevent mass murder and/or chaos – without such jobs?
Journalism: Oft-times in the private and/or public sector, there are crimes or serious injustices occurring which would never see the light of day without some degree of undercover journalism or undercover private detective work. Once again, individuals have to pretend to be someone they are not in a convincing manner. Without this function, as well, our society would be in danger.
War-time: During times of war, sometimes the best intelligence is obtained through HUMINT (human intelligence), a nice word for spying – which, too, requires deception, sometimes to a great degree. Additionally, families may be faced with moral decisions, such as Christian families in Germany who hid Jews from pogroms and concentrations camps. In doing so, they were certainly forced to lie in the service of greater good.
The Stage: Theater, TV, and movie professions all require a level of ‘deception’ (though most people are in on the deception from the get-go). The very word ‘hypocrite’ is derived from a description of an actor on a stage who says one thing, but in real life is something different. Is this ‘deception’, no matter how mild, still deception?
What is the line between sin and service?
If we look at Jesus’ day, there were entire classes of people who professionally were ’sinners’ – in fact, that is what they were called, “sinners”. These were Jews who were, in one way or another, in the employ of Rome, many of whom collected taxes – which meant they would touch money with graven images on it. These “sinners” were considered unclean and, therefore, could not enter the temple grounds. They were still considered to be part of God’s chosen people, the Jews, but they were still disenfranchised. Yet, we know that Jesus singled them out and ate with them, amid protests from the religious authorities of the day.
So, as we look at the complex times of today – which we have made so – and the question still arises, must we have a professional class of “sinners”, or is there another way to view professions of deception?
19 Comments(+Add)
I am not sure why people are accusing Scottie of lying… because Dwayna Litz goes “undercover” at times to expose people… Like her take on the Cornerstone festival that seemed to not be able to even grasp reality around her…
Yet, that is the case as usually… it is OK to do unless one points out that it is wrong, then they go.. “you are doing it right now so you are a hypocrite!”…
It seems that they know deep down it is wrong, but seem almost impulsive as that they need to protect truth with lies and slander…
When asked to produce actually names they repeat the same one or two if any… and still seem to think that “all” think like them.
Now for some reason this feels like deja vu! LOL!
blessings,
iggy
BTW, Rahab lied about not know where the two spies were at… as she hid them on her own roof… and God credited her in that act righteous…
Go figure that one out!
Be Blessed,
iggy
Chris L: Your mind moves in the strangest paths sometimes. LOL.
In Romans 13:1ff Paul says the role of government is to enact justice by punishing evil doers, and rewarding good. It seems obvious to me that at this point in time (and perhaps at all points in time) stopping evil men involves deception. That leaves us with a couple of options.
1. Only non-Christians can fulfill the God mandated role of government.
2. A certain level of deceptions is allowed in the pursuit of justice.
3. An increased number of deaths is acceptable for not allowing anyone to deceive anyone in the pursuit of justice.
Obviously #s 1 and 3 have huge flaws. For #1 it would mean encouraging sin to help Christians (and non-Christians) and wouldn’t be acceptable under any other circumstances, and would probably make Christians as culpable as if they had done it themselves.
#3 involves an increase in the loss of life, something that if we’re going to say that human life has God ordained value is not acceptable.
Which puts us back at #2: Christians deceiving in order to protect. I’m never all that keen on telling people its ok to deceive ever. Perhaps a pertinent passage is found in Luke 3:14 in which some Roman soldiers come to John for advice and John responded with “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.” Obviously its not a perfect comparison as soldiers probably weren’t deceiving evil doers on a regular basis, but there was probably some of it, especially if they ended up interrogating prisoners, or people, or whoever. As Iggy points out Rahab lied and it was reckoned as righteous. In 2 Chronicles 18 God seems to be hanging out with a spirit that’s willing to deceive and even seems to endorse its activity.
Perhaps its that higher level authority which both mandates the ‘deception’ and puts limits on it. In police work, there’s a review board and/or a case officer not undercover who monitors the situation. In investigative journalism, the editor is supposed to answer ethical questions and make sure folks don’t step over the line…
Could this be a factor?
Also – HJ, just wondering what you found strange – the topic, itself, or the paths I went with Jesus and the class of “sinners”?
BTW, that dog is sweet action.
I am not too versed in theology, but isn’t one of the roots of sin selfish behavior, or desire to please self. I would think that in most of the incident described above that self is the motive (well, except for acting) but the motive is protection/service to others. I don’t know that I would equate lying with deception. Otherwise, every time someone had a surprize party that would be sin.
I would say that as a rule, actors are a class of sinners. And I am an actress, so I can say that.
Sandy,
Actually you are wrong, the issue of sin is not that we please our self… which may not always be selfishness.
The core of sin is unbelief. CHoosing to beleive a lie over the truth.
The other point is that the focus of the Christian life is not to stop sinning, but to live for the Glory of God. We have seemed to turn Christianity into a sin management program and that is far below what God intended.
Jesus took away our sins, we are free in Christ… we are free from sin to pursue the righteousness of Christ Jesus.
Be blessed,
iggy
Chris L,
I think there is no real issue… SoL is known for its slander of others. The more that it is shown that they censor people as with the case with an emergent named Jeff who was “quoted” but not given any chance to defend himself…
It seems that Paul stood up to the Judaizers and called them what they were… as well as other “who tried to harm me”.
To expose the fraud of SoL and AM and CRN seems more to me proving that God brings into the light what is done in secret. Meaning that they are trying to hide come comments that do not reflect their thoughts and instead demonize those who see it differently… they are using lies to protect their version of truth.
It seems then that as with someone who exposes the inner temple teachings of Mormonism or Free Masons that people do need to be warned.
I have thought about this. Though I do not want to fall into the tactics they use, I see that if the truth is exposed, that more people are warned.
I am not really sure I care about “unnecessarily additional animosity” as it seems that they have little good will or love for those they attack every day.
In that I see that just as one might expose a pedophile by undercover methods… to protect people on the spiritual level is as important.
If the post was obviously a ruse, it seems that a true discernment ministry might be able to see that… if they are so guided by the Holy Spirit and move by the hand of God as they claim.
Be Blessed,
iggy
Sandy,
As an ex-theater major (the life of a starving actor’s wife didn’t so much appeal to my fiancee at the time), I wholeheartedly agree with you
As for the higher cause – service to others – I have considered this, as well, but (as with many things) when viewed in the extreme, this leads to the end justifying the means. I think it may be a combination of the service aspect which also needs to be considered with some sort of oversight…
I really don’t see how anyone could consider a professional actor to be deceptive, unless you are going from the most literal translation of deception. Under that definition, fiction writers, songwriters, and a number of other people that tell fictional stories would have to be included. I think the big difference with them is that everyone knows the story, play, movie, etc. isn’t real – unless they were one of the ones who heard Orson Well’s War of the Worlds.
As far as the other ones, I would say it’s up to each indiviudal Christian where to draw the line for himself. One of the elders at my church is actually the District Attorney, and before that he worked for the Attorney General’s office. One of the biggest law enforcement issues here is the sale of illegal drugs, and many of the operations this man has overseen have involved different people working undercover to catch dealers. I personally don’t think this is wrong, and the DA himself is a very honest and down-to-earth person.
It is interesteing to me that some theologians have described the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of Christ as a sort of undercover mission. Christ came to earth in such humility that the extent of His full Divinity was cloaked from Satan. Christ was killed on the cross and Satan thought he had won, but to his surprise had fallen into a trap. Jesus descended into Hell, won the victory of the Devil, Sin, and Death, and rose victoriously. Granted, the whole deception part in this story is a dramatization of sorts. There is poetic justice in some sense, though, in the Deceiver being deceived.
Phil,
The more I think about this issue the more I agree with you.
Also, when it comes to acting, theatre, writing etc. I don’t think it can be construed as deceptive in that from the get go its presented as fiction. Perhaps the only exception would be something like the guy on Oprah who wrote a non-fiction book full of fiction.
I’m glad someone finally got serious with the theater issue, as it was a bit of subterfuge of my own:
Theater was a huge issue in Jesus’ day, as it was a completely pagan enterprise with constant on-stage nudity and carnality of all sorts before you even got to the script. If we are to believe historical records, a good Jew would never even enter a theater, yet we have Jesus almost verbatim quoting Euripides’ The Trojan Women with a key substitution and we have Paul giving a similar substitution to the opening rhetoric of theater performances.
According to first and second century sources, religious Jews and Christians avoided the theater, and the word ‘hypocrite’ was not accidentally derived from the word for actor. Yet, 2000 years later we have even simple theatrical presentations in many churches (even, I suspect, Reformed ones!)
Just an observation of culture, context and redeeming what is God’s from the pagans…
Actor’s are OK, but sexual frolicking with someone who is not your wife is unbiblical no matter how great the acting. There are limits.
Tim, you are very creative lurking about as other people. I can recall some in the OT hiding their identity. Anyway it is more of a game than anything, and remember angels travel sometimes without revealing their true identity. Keep doning some sleuth work and make a list of your characters, we can invent a game of internet “Clue”.
Rev. Scottie commented with a rebuke in the Slice conservatory! (By the way, can you e-mail me with instructions on how to invent names with which to hide your identity?) I love the same enemy hypocrisy.
Pride attracts a camaraderie which operates in a room without mirrors.
Henry,
What? I’ve never hidden my identity. I’ve never created an online persona intended to obscure who I am. Sadly, I’m not yet a household name to the point where people would recognize me by name, but I’ve always used hyperlinks that point to my website, regardless of what name I’ve used (generally the only time I’ve used a different name has been to fit the theme of an online game).
I’m sorry, Tim, I thought that was you. Oh well, it was interesting.
Is someone using my name somewhere else?
A good place to find fake names to use is in email spam. Great, odd names there.
Question: Where does Jesus almost quote The Trojan Women? I’m just curious. I didn’t know that.
Julie,
A number of Greek scholars have noted that in his commentary:
, his rendering of a section of the script is identical in the Greek, aside for replacing “Troy” with Jerusalem and adding one additional word, to The Trojan Women. I don’t know Greek, but I have seen a few independent references to this.