All of which applies very neatly to the other examples of generally evil stuff: You send your kids to their room if they've misbehaved, which doesn't mean it's

All of which applies very neatly to the other examples of generally evil stuff: You send your kids to their room if they've misbehaved, which doesn't mean it's acceptable to lock a stranger up in their home. You can injure or robber (or not particularly care if he gets injured), which doesn't mean you should feel justified in clobbering a stranger. You pull the plug on a relative in an irreversible coma, even though starving her to death under normal circumstances would be frowned on. These are all cases in which violence -- a bad thing -- is used to prevent worse things. The fact that you give specific examples of when lying is a good plan should be evidence to you that it often isn't. Which doesn't prove that it's evil, just that it could be.