RS/MP Lesson 31: “Honesty” (Gospel Principles Manual)

This is, perhaps naturally, one of the most straightforward lessons in the whole Gospel Principles manual. After making clear that “honesty is a principle of salvation,” the lesson lists a few specific forms of dishonesty (lying, stealing, cheating—note that the new edition has added a reference to “copying music, movies, pictures, or written text without the permission of the copyright owners” to its discussion of stealing), criticizes excuse-making concerning honesty, and concludes with a word about how “we can be completely honest.”

To be honest, I have nothing much to say in response to this lesson. But I’ll see if I can’t just point in a few directions that might be of interest, though I won’t commit to spelling out their implications here.

(1) Among the “additional scriptures” is D&C 50:17. I wonder if this verse couldn’t be used to produce an interesting discussion: What is “the spirit of truth,” and what is the relationship between teaching the gospel and honesty?

(2) The lesson refers to Alma 27:27, in which certain people were “distinguished for their zeal towards God, and also towards men; for they were perfectly honest and upright in all things.” Some interesting discussion could be generated by trying to think about this connection between public distinction and honesty. Isn’t the very possibility of public distinction precisely what usually keeps us from being honest?

(3) The lesson makes reference to the scriptural claim (see 2 Nephi 9:9) that Satan is the “father of lies.” What does this attribution mean? Much thought could be given to that point, I think.

(4) The lesson says: “We can also intentionally deceive others by a gesture or a look, by silence, or by telling only part of the truth.” This is nice point, principally because it makes clear that language is more than verbal, and that honesty is a question of that broader sense of language. Honesty is a way of being in the world, not a question of propositional content. This could be a nice point for further discussion.

(5) While avoiding overly heated political discussion, it might be interesting to take a closer look at this statement in the lesson: “Some employees cheat their employers by not working their full time; yet they accept full pay. Some employers are not fair to their employees; they pay them less than they should.” Most of us are involved in one of these two situations, whether as employer or employee. Does honesty essentially work against today’s work ethic?

(6) Finally, a warning from my perspective. Most every lesson and talk I’ve heard on honesty tries to establish the rule by delineating the exception: “We all know what we shouldn’t say when our wives ask whether that dress makes them look fat, but honesty doesn’t cover that kind of thing.” I think this rhetorical move is a mistake. Lessons on honesty should call us behind facile rule/exception distinctions to living the kind of life where we are honest enough with ourselves not to think there are exceptions.

What thoughts have you all on this lesson?