It has been my observation that one of the most frequent criticisms leveled against Christians (not the nominal variety) has been hypocrisy. When a Christian makes a stand about right and wrong it rubs many people the wrong way because of their own guilty conscience. When the same believer then violates those very standards which he has defended, those same detractors are offended most. While the revelation of Christians who are living a double standard can be cleansing for a church or organization, it is also ammunition for the enemies of Christ to claim that we all are living a lie.
In the story “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, one the characters addresses the whispered secret plans of one of his sons with the phrase “There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity...You can smell it. It smells like death.” According to Webster's Dictionary mendacity is a lie, and in the context of the Tennessee Williams' story it is subterfuge and hypocrisy masquerading as concern. I thought of such hypocrisy this week during the coverage of the descent into madness by one of the highest paid actors on television.
Television history is replete with stars whose private lives were a shambles while their public personas were a complete contradiction. I grew up watching Jackie Gleason on television, I thought he was a great guy. Only when I was much older did I learn of his private struggles with alcohol etc. There are too many examples to dwell on only one. The hypocrisy of the media today is that while they are wringing their hands in public about some actor's rants and instability, they have known all along that this was his case and either didn't care or were more concerned with the money they were making.
How about the liberal mind of today? During a recent gorilla journalism video, a high ranking officer of the NPR foundation was heard to bemoan the fact that there are so few liberals in the country. He continued to say that the only reason people didn't agree with his view point was that they were ignorant and uneducated and xenophobic. How could anyone escape the circular logic and hypocrisy in his thinking. The conservatives they are talking about are afraid of those different from themselves but he sees those people as “less than” himself and ignorant. Is that not a quintessentially hypocritical position? “Oh I see, the reason I don't agree with you is not that you are wrong, it is because I'm not educated?”
These issues point out the need for logic and critical thinking skills on our part. We must not defend those who fall prey to their own lust and greed, but we must admit that failures happen because we are all fallible. We must also point out the rank hypocrisy of those who oppose us for what it is. They are deceiving themselves in order to raise themselves above others. Elitism is the prime example of this kind of thinking. Let us not have that attitude at Church!
Finally, we should always be willing to show grace and deference to those who admit their failures and repent. Paul's words in Galatians were never more meaningful...”Gal 6:1 BRETHREN, IF any person is overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsive to and controlled by the Spirit] should set him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on yourself, lest you should be tempted also. “ AMPLIFIED
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