What is a hypocrite and why is that so unacceptable and why does it need correcting?
THE HYPOCRITE
A hypocrite is a person who punishes you or wants to
punish you with disapproval and/or punishment for doing what he does. Hypocrites
think they are better than those they condemn though they are not.
A smoking doctor who tells you not to smoke may not be a hypocrite. He may be
assuming you want to be well unlike him. You may be younger than him. Or he may
have learned from experience that the trap of smoking is a bad one. I would add
that he is giving practical advice not moral advice.
He is no more a hypocrite than a travel agent who inspires you to go to Malta
when he would not go there himself. The travel agent wants you to go to a place
you will enjoy. He would not like Malta but that does not mean you cannot love
it!
What about the judge who sends heroin users to jail and uses it himself? He is
not a hypocrite. The law does not urge him to turn himself in. The law applies
only to users who get caught. He agrees with the legal ban for not all people
can handle heroin. He has to apply the law even if he does not agree with it.
HYPOCRITE DOES NOT HAVE THE GUTS TO BE AUTHENTIC
The hypocrite strives to look good. That proves shows how much she or he longs
for acceptance. Take the cherry-picking Catholic. He strives for acceptance as a
true Catholic. In as far as he does that, he actually supports the Catholic
Church as correctly understood. That is why the gay activist who claims to be a
good Catholic is not a real friend to gay activism. He will come across as one
who sees a person should be a good Catholic and who doesn't really know how to
go about being one correctly.
You can only be a hypocrite by being parasitic on a good thing. So a religious hypocrite promotes the religion he misuses by treating it as a good thing he is a servant of when in fact he is a servant of his own subjective notions and heresies.
The many are called and some are chosen idea indicates that each hypocrite is called to follow the religion right and drop the act.
The cherry-picker is a hypocrite. Hypocrisy doesn’t make the doctrines opposed untrue. It brings them attention for they have to be avoided in some way or even hated. It does not help do anything but try to obscure them and if anything makes the person look as if she or he thinks and fears that they are true but does not want to admit it. The person cannot ask anybody to think any different. The cherry-picker becomes an argument for the doctrines being true. She or he is a stronger argument than the believer for the simple reason that if religion exists to make people virtuous and a doctrine is made more convincing if those who do not want to believe actually do and do not realise it. It cries for attention in the way that believing the doctrine like a sheep does not.
Another self-defeating thing about the hypocrite is that he or she uses liberty of conscience as an excuse. Take the Catholic who says there is a right to abortion though the faith says a baby has a soul from conception and cannot be aborted for it is murder. She or he will say her or his conscience requires support for abortion.
THE PRAYERS OF HYPOCRITES
Prayer is co-operation with God. The reason people can be religious and devoted
to God while still being unrepentedly evil is that their real God is their
ideas. They worship what they feel is there. They worship an idol constructed of
their feelings. The worship only celebrates and deepens their hypocrisy.
