Mormon,Mormonism Honesty

Joseph Smith, the first president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was asked by a newspaper editor about the beliefs of the Latter-day Saints. In reply, Joseph listed 13 beliefs. The 13 statements have become known as The Articles of Faith, and they have been canonized and are considered scripture by LDS.

The 13th Article of Faith states

We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

That statement describes personal attributes that LDS are encouraged to put into their lives. There is a peculiar culture among Latter-day Saints that causes them to believe that most LDS follow the admonition of the 13th Article of Faith to be "honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men". This causes many LDS to have a high level of trust towards people who are engaged in selling products, using health foods, and investing in land and stocks. Because of this high trust-level, Latter-day Saints are open to being deceived by people who are not honest. Indeed. some people consider Utah the scam capitol of the world. Utah is marked with this "distinction" because many Utah residents are LDS and are anxious to participate in programs and products they think will bring monetary returns or greater health to them. These people have become blinded to the fact that expected monetary returns or improvements in health may be unreasonable, and they accept the claims of the perpetrators of the schemes because the perpetrators are LDS and therefore honest.

This page focuses on the dangers of dishonesty. Dishonesty is the projection of ideas or products such that people view that ideas or products as being something different from what they really are. The basis of dishonesty is lying. Through lying, people try to deceive others. These people present ideas or proposals as something different than they really are, and usually the people telling lies benefit in some way while the people receiving the lies are hurt in some way.

There are two kinds of lies, so called white lies and major lies. White lies are often used by people as a way of conforming to social traditions. For example, two people greet each other. "Hi, Dick, how are you?" "Fine, Mary". Mary likely isn't really inquiring about the welfare of Dick; she is just giving a greeting, and social norms cause her to ask how Dick is doing. Dick isn't giving a report on his condition. He is just replying to Mary by giving a social greeting in the form of an ambiguous statement. These kind of white lies are likely relatively harmless and are just part of the social interactions between people. If the person giving the greeting really is interested in the mental or physical welfare of the other person, he or she needs to make it clear that their statement is a sincere attempt to understand how the other person is doing. For example, a TV ad currently being broadcast portrays two people meeting. One person asks how the other person is doing and then adds a statement that she (the person asking) understands that things are probably pretty rough due to the death of the mother of the other person.

In contrast with white lies, major lies are dishonest and harmful. The persons telling the lies are trying to deceive other people. Examples of major lies are dishonest financial or health scams, email and telephone scams, irresponsible real estate agents, and dishonest political representatives who make false claims about candidates to political office. Major lies are harmful, because they can cause physical, mental, and emotional problems for both the persons giving the lies and the persons receiving the lies.