Hypocrisy: KevinH

The unparalleled comedian, Norm MacDonald, had a bit where he spoke of Bill Cosby.  He would tell the story of how someone once told him that they thought the worst thing about Cosby was the hypocrisy.  MacDonald would respond by expressing disagreement, then after a pause, wryly reply that he thinks the worst thing about Cosby was actually the raping.

Earlier this week, Duane wrote for us a cogent article detailing the hypocrisy and mistakenness of the Pharisees and how those traits have continued to be a potential and realized stumbling block throughout the history of the Christian faith, and particularly so in our current environment today as many Christians, particularly evangelicals, have grasped for partisan political power and control.  To quote him at a few different places:

“Perhaps most damning is the willingness of evangelicals to exchange the Gospel for cultural and political influence.”

“Christ’s critique was not abstract. He accused the Pharisees of weaponizing religion to protect privilege. Evangelicals, in their embrace of Christian nationalism, do much the same. They bind the conscience of believers to the ballot box, confuse the Kingdom of God with the fortunes of a party, and sacrifice truth for access to power.”

“The tragedy of evangelical Pharisaism is not simply that it is misguided. It is that it is a betrayal of the crucified Lord. To replace the scandal of the cross with the spectacle of a patriotic rally is to proclaim another gospel entirely.”

Anyone with a modicum of common sense, moral understanding, and fair minded candidness can see the glaring hypocrisy as many Christians, particularly evangelicals, have ended up excusing, justifying, adopting, and blessing many things which are counter to Christ in their zeal of embracing partisan politics, even to the extent of Christian nationalism.  It is ugly, it is sorrowful, and it is greatly disconcerting.

To quote one of Jesus’ “woes” to the Pharisees:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” (Matt. 23:15)

This political hypocrisy is not only breeding more hypocrisy, but each iteration is seemingly worse than the last.  Christians are no longer just supporting politicians of bad character when they previously had vowed the importance of character, but now they are supporting so many of the malevolent actions of the bad characters they are supporting….. actions they would have once denounced, or even still would denounce, if they were only conducted by the “other” party.

Disregard for our nation’s laws and principles is regularly being flaunted and many Christians are all for it.  Immigrants (“illegal” and even “legal”) are being demonized, intimidated, roughed up, imprisoned in squalid conditions, and their families are being torn apart, and many Christians are cheering it on.  Wide swaths of other people groups are being denigrated and dehumanized and many Christians are joining in.  The poor are having critically needed aid rescinded from them, even life-dependent need, especially abroad, and Christians are calling this right.

The hypocrisy is atrocious.  Yet it is the hypocritically supported actions that are actually doing the harm to people….. in some cases, the actions are even literally killing them.

So it is awful that many Christians in this country right now, most especially evangelicals, are displaying such rank hypocrisy.  But in some ways it is even worse that many people (and most often the “least of these”) are suffering harm, sometimes even to the point of death, due to evil actions and attitudes that are being taken and manifested primarily by our governmental leaders.  Some will even try to justify the actions by saying something like, “At least Trump isn’t being a hypocrite, he’s doing these things right out in the open.  He’s not trying to hide them.”  As if his lack of hypocrisy in these circumstances somehow makes it all okay.

Without the Christian hypocrisy, however, it is quite possible that some, if not even much of the harm would not actually be taking place.  The hypocrisy substantially helps create supportive and licentious environments that make it much easier for the harmful actions to take place.  The hypocrisy may not be directly causing the harm, but it is certainly greasing the wheels for it.

Although there were also some genuine and righteous intentions, the hypocrisy that was mixed in with the movement to align evangelicals with the Republican party starting in the 1970’s has come to bear.  The proselytes have been made twice the children of hell as the original hypocrites.  The way things have gone these past ten years, even the past one year, makes it feel like it’s not just twice as much, but three or four or five times as much.

Just like the raping was the far worse thing than the hypocrisy for Bill Cosby, so it is today that the actions that are actually harming and even killing other people, many times the victims being the poor and disadvantaged, are worse than the hypocrisy of those who claim to follow Christ but are then excusing or justifying these actions that are counter to Christ.  At least on one level they are.

Yet on another level, the frequency and severity of these harmful actions may not be taking place nearly as much if not for the rampant hypocrisy that is ignoring, excusing, justifying, and supporting such actions.  All the more, there is another element where the name of Jesus Christ is being defamed – not necessarily by those who are committing the actions, especially if they are not Christians or are committing the actions in the name of the state rather than the name of the church, but rather by Christians who are supporting and even cheering on the harmful actions.

In the end, whichever way one looks at it, this hypocrisy is very bad.  This hypocrisy is more than just the circumstance of vainly projecting a virtuous character that one is actually not actively fulfilling, but rather it is significantly helping to set the environment where real harm is thriving, and it is disgracing the name of Jesus Christ, confusing, misleading, and souring who knows how many on His Name.

It is long past due for many of the American Church, particularly evangelicals, to repent of their political idolatry and hypocrisy.

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,” – Acts 3:19