The Little White Lie...A Gray Area?

Dear Ms. E:Post: I was in a sticky situation recently and found myself telling a white lie in order to avoid an unwelcome experience. I grapple with the fact that it is wrong to lie but tell myself that it is not hurting anyone and in fact lying may spare someone’s feelings.

My sticky situation went something like this: A couple who are acquaintances asked us to have dinner. My wife and I met them through our child at the elementary school. Just like on a recent episode of the TV show ‘Modern Family’, the acquaintance wife is a loud mouth and the acquaintance husband is boring. We do not wish to spend more time with them than we already do through school events.

Is telling a little white lie acceptable to gracefully excuse ourselves from this dinner invitation? I know that some consider lying to be immoral, regardless of the circumstance. In other words, some do not view white lies on any spectrum of relevance to a situation but instead view the white lie phenomenon as a black or white issue – truth or lie, no in between.

I would be interested to know what your readers think.