Is it ok to lie to children?

Do you ever get that weird experience where you were quite contentedly wandering round a shop lost in your own little world, when suddenly the 'background radio' comes hurtling into your sub-conscience as some controversial phrase pops out? This wqas what happened to me yesterday and I was so surprised that I can't even remember where I was at the time!

Some local professor is now encouraging Gloucestershire parents to lie to their kids (white lies) because apparently it is an excellent way to stimulate their imagination. I have to say that I have not heard anything quite so disturbing in the last few days at least. Firstly let's look at this notion of a white lie... A white lie is still a lie. Who are you kidding with that apart from yourself? It is no more than a pathetic remedy for the troubled conscience.

So what is wrong with lying to kids? (There's a funny book called "Great lies to tell small children", but that's an aside!!) The Bible says many times that we shouldn't lie including in Colossians 3..."Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of God." That's fairly clear. Firstly I am concerned that children are allegedly so void of imaginative skills when children are arguably THE most imaginative beings on this earth! It seems that after a few years, all sense of imagination is rationalised and beaten out of you by human theory and explanation . Sometimes in the church we become guilty of becoming too "theologised" (a new word?!) and we limit the inexplicable power of God (well, God's power is limitless, so perhaps I should say we doubt it!) because we just explain away the childlike faith that Jesus wants us to have.

God in His very nature is not supposed to be rationalised because He is completely unique and His actions and timings are outside of our human comprehension!! He gave us imagination to give us a hope of getting close to what He is and what He can do - we just have to get past the mis-translation of "imagination" as just something that is not real. It also means "The ability to confront and deal with reality by using the creative power of the mind; resourcefulness" (i.e. 'handling a problem with great imagination'). God can speak to our imaginations and it is real.

Then, coming back to children, I remembered. They are not really allowed to imagine anymore. They are not encouraged to read (try getting a teenager to read the Bible!!), not encouraged to be creative and make things for themselves in a resourceful way. They are not taught to cook, they do not know how to dream up ideas because education is given on a plate and even if they did have a good idea, there are so many preventative laws and health and safety issues, that they could never be done!

Also there is a huge issue here with trust. Most kids are sadly taught not to trust anyone. In some ways this is right, as unless you are Jesus, you are going to let someone down at numerous points in your life. To truly trust someone you'd hope they they would not let you down. However, Jesus taught grace and God entrusts things to us knowing full well taht we will stuff them up. But He still chooses to trust us. Are we too 'trust-protective' as a nation? How is it going to help if we lie to our children and then when they find out, tell them that it was ok and that it was good for them? If you can't trust your parents, it can be an issue of huge insecurity. Imagine where we'd be if we coudn't trust God!

Anyway, my rant draws to a close... I would maintain that it is not ok to lie to children. What do you think? A lie to me, s like a zit... It grows out of proportion, hurts, disfigures and eventually explodes!