An Odor of Mendacity

The other day I came across a column by conservative writer Cal Thomas simply entitled “Mendacity.” What’s that I wondered?

Quickly I learned he was referencing the decision by Judge Scott McAfee in the case regarding Fulton County, Georgia’s District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

“Judge Scott McAfee gave Willis a choice – either dump Wade, with whom she’d had a romantic relationship, as prosecutor in the case against Donald Trump, or leave the case herself.”

Contained in Judge McAfee’s ruling was a rarely used word. He wrote that while a conflict of interest wasn’t proved, “an odor of mendacity remains.”

Collins online dictionary defined mendacity as “untruthfulness. Tendency to lie. Falsehood.”

Yesterday Congress had a public hearing where the opposing parties repeatedly accused each other of lying.

By the way, I wonder how many politicians in Washington would resemble Pinocchio, if their nose grew longer every time they told a lie?  However, lying is not limited to the political class.  Lying seems to be prevalent and pervasive in our culture today. Yet, we try to shield or soften it by euphemistic expressions, or little known or otherwise weaker words.

Instead of lying, someone is…

• Stretching the truth.
• Fibbing.
• Equivocating.
• Distorting.
• Exaggerating.
• Misrepresenting.
• Spreading misinformation.
• Telling a story.
• Telling a whopper.
• Falsifying.
• Paltering.
• Dissembling.
• Disingenuous.

Now we can add to that list “mendacious.” which comes from a Latin word meaning “lying, or false.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary says, “It is often used to refer to people who habitually lie.”

There is a scene in the 1955 play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” written by Tennessee Williams where the character dubbed as “Big Daddy” says:

What’s that smell in this room? Didn’t you notice it, Brick? Didn’t you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room? There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity. You can smell it. It smells like death.”

The serious social and cultural consequences of lying were plainly stated by the 16th century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne. “Lying is a hateful and accursed vice. We have no other tie upon one another, but our word. If we did but discover the horror and consequences of it, we should pursue it with fire and sword, and more justly than other crimes.”

Sadly, it seems no one is bothered by the obnoxious smell of lying any more. However, God has a good deal to say about it in His Book.

One of the 10 Commandments in the Old Law was, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Ex. 20:16).

One of the 7 deadly sins that God hates is “a lying tongue” (Prov. 6;17).

The wise man wrote in Proverbs 12:22, “The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.”

Jesus said that lying emanates from the Devil, whom He called “a liar and the father of lies” (Jn. 8:44).

The apostle Paul commanded, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices” (Col.3:9).

His letter to Timothy, Paul lists “liars” in the same categories of sins as those guilty of murder, fornication, kidnaping, and homosexuality (1 Tim. 1:8-11).

Finally, John, often called the apostle of love, wrote in Revelation 21:8 that “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Indeed, “odor of mendacity…smells like death.” Not just in our legal system. Or in our culture. Or in this life. But also in eternity.

“Therefore, put away lying, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor” (Eph. 4:25).

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman