April 29, 2013

Jane Jimenez

If the Internet has any value at all, you would think it would be in its role in “truth telling.”  If only.

Lies and deceit are as old as Adam and Eve.  Lying is an equal opportunity sin:  The man answered God, “The woman you put here with me….The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Lying is eternal.  Only one generation out of the Garden, Cain took advantage of lies in an attempt to deceive his Maker.  Where was Able?  “I don’t know,” Cain said…presumably with a straight face.

The Bible abounds in wisdom grounded in knowing the difference between truth and lies.  Proverbs warns us.  Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbor deceit.  [Prov 26:24 NIV]  Satan, the quintessential evil being, is named Father of all lies.

There is only one reason that lying is so pervasive.  There is profit in being a good liar.  If successful, you can retain your deed to the Garden of Eden; you can avoid the mark of Cain for murder.

Ford car company tried its best.  And it almost got away with a very profitable lie.  In 1968, the Ford Pinto was set up to be a hot-selling, middle-America car.  Cute car, cute name…the Pinto was perfect for families on a budget and for their children just learning to drive.  Only problem?  Every once in a while, in a simple fender-bender car accident, the Pinto would explode into flames.  And flames are quite deadly to the people involved.

In May 1972, Lily Gray was traveling with thirteen year old Richard Grimshaw in a 1972 Pinto when their car was struck by another car traveling approximately thirty miles per hour.  The impact ignited a fire in the Pinto which killed Lily Gray and left Richard Grimshaw with devastating injuries.  A judgment was rendered against Ford and the jury awarded the Gray family $560,000 and Matthew Grimshaw $2.5 million in compensatory damages.  The surprise came when the jury awarded $125 million in punitive damages as well.  This was subsequently reduced to $3.5 million.

Long ago, when truth was recorded on scrolls, one can imagine how difficult it would have been to ride a donkey down to the local synagogue and dig through their scroll library, unrolling and rolling back leather scrolls in a search for the damning evidence to prove that Ford lied.  With the Internet, just type in “Ford Pinto,” and your evidence is at hand.  Voila!  Search finished. They lied.

The Internet, not yet in existence, would have been a great help in the 70s to reveal truth about the Pinto, saving time…and more importantly…saving lives.  It took more deaths, many years, and thousands of hours upon hours of research to prove that the deaths in Pinto accidents were caused by corporate greed.  Law professor Palmiter explains: 

Although Ford had access to a new design which would decrease the possibility of the Ford Pinto from exploding, the company chose not to implement the design, which would have cost $11 per car, even though it had done an analysis showing that the new design would result in 180 less deaths.

In the current age, no matter how you count the years between Genesis and today, we are witnesses to a “whole lot of lying going on.”  Just last night, in the commercial breaks for a one hour crime drama, three different drug companies are being accused of lying.  The companies told consumers, “Take our drug.  It is good for you.”  They are being sued.  Liars?

Did you take Accutane, Zoloft, or Actos?  One word typed into your Internet search engine…one click… “Enter”…and the entire library of the universe is at your disposal.  You would think that is enough to find truth and reveal lies…wouldn’t you?

If only!

And these drugs are the simple cases.  Don’t even think about investigating lies that involve our sexually promiscuous society.

Have you ever wondered about the money to be made in the sex industry?  Forget the obvious – pornography and prostitution.  What about all of the money to be made by encouraging people of all ages to have all types of sex at any time with anyone for any reason?

If the question does not produce a string of dollar signs in your mind, please return to Genesis.  If any question has merits in today’s culture, this is it.    What profits are to be made by convincing people to have more of what they already are programmed to desire?  Sex.

And…with all that money at stake…what is the possibility that there are lies out there waiting to be discovered?  Sex…money…lies?  It’s a calculation you can bet on.

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KEEP POSTED:

Upcoming columns will expose the many profits to be had for those in our culture  who are in the business of promoting free and easy sex.  Yes, there is a cost involved in “free” sex.