Already facing feelings of shame and the loss of the hope of Jesus Christ, the heavy weight of guilt also weighs on his shoulders, so heavily that he brings him to tears. Hughes says, "...I was really crying because I couldn't bear to tell her [aunt] that I had lied, that I had deceived everyone in the church, that I hadn't seen Jesus and that now I no longer believed. there was no more Jesus” (232). He lies to the aunt he loved and to the entire church congregation, and he knows deep down that it was wrong. Raised actively in the church, and with his deception taking place within a church - a place where even non-religious people are reluctant to tell untruths - Hughes grew up knowing that lying is a sin and he believes in that 'he had done. was wrong, even if he did it so everyone could leave. Unlike Connie, who deceives and bullies his classmates in fifth grade, Hughes lies to someone he really likes. His lie is life-changing. He realizes that Jesus does not exist, this incredible Lord and Savior in whom he had been raised to fervently believe.