My Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds

“My hypocrisy knows no bounds.” That’s a quote from Val Kilmer in Tombstone, not from the Bible, but it fits in today’s day and age.

Sexual harassment, collusion and election rigging, murder, Wikileaks, power, protest – it all matters from which perspective you hail whether it’s good or bad. That’s called hypocrisy.

Jesus taught against hypocrisy in Matthew when he called out the fake ways of the Pharisees. He said they made strict laws that they themselves were unwilling to follow, and they made a public showing of their piety but were guilty as sin in private. (Matt 23:1-12) We have the same thing today – only today we have social media and the MSM to shotgun our justification.

Let’s dig deep, back to August 2016, before Colin Kaepernick was GQ’s “Citizen of the Year,” back before Republican presidents and Democrat owners had a chance to hijack the movement, back before conservative pundits and liberal Christians had the chance to change the narrative. In August of 2016, Colin Kaepernick said during an interview, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color." Fast forward to today, MSN, Rolling Stone Magazine, Huffington Post, and CNN all recently ran articles about how it’s “not about the flag or the military, it’s about justice.”

Wait – didn’t Kaepernick say “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag…”? Ok – how is it not about a flag?

Ok, we’ll let that sit there for a minute. Russian collusion should be a safer topic, right? I mean, who is going to argue that a special counsel is a bad idea. We don’t want Russia – a sovereign foreign power – influencing the way we elect our leaders. That’s wrong. It should be illegal! But back in July of 2016 the US State Department under Secretary John Kerry sent $350,000 in US taxpayer funds to support OneVoice, a political group tied to then President Obama. That group funded a campaign to oust current PM Netanyahu as reported by the US Congress.

“Pot, pot, this is kettle. You’re black, over.”

Oh wait. Let’s tackle something that nobody will disagree on – sexual harassment. It’s illegal. We even have training on it in corporate America to be sure everybody understands it, how to identify it, how to respond to it, how to report it, and how to avoid it. You’ve seen the videos, Bob tells an off-color joke that offends Nancy, so Barbara tells Nancy how to respond – first let Bob know she is uncomfortable, then if Bob doesn’t correct his actions report it to HR or the harassment hotline. So we’ve established harassment as illegal and immoral. I mean, it’s not like Hollywood has made its money selling sex, drugs, and violence. We might have seen this coming if they made movies and glorified violence against women, but they don’t do that, right? We had no way to expect millionaires with lavish lifestyles where “horses have beds” (Marilyn Monroe) and actors wear – nothing – on the red carpet to bend the rules or live “above the law.” I mean, would we buy tickets to the movies if we knew J-Law had to audition in pasties or that the director held “auditions” on Saturday nights in his house after a bottle of wine? Nah – we’re not hypocritical like that.

I can’t say it any better than Jesus did in Matthew.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” (23:23-4, NIV)

It’s never easy living in this world, but we, as Christians, don’t have to fall for the tactics of this world. We don’t have to embrace hypocrisy by calling out sins while embracing our own. We don’t have to be hypocritical by shaming others while hiding our own shame. “First take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:42, NIV)

So my challenge today is to be real. Be honest. Be true. Be the witness Christ has called us to be. Don’t shy away just because we have sinned, but address our sins first, then our message can be heard. Otherwise, we’re just like Tim Taylor in a bad comedy, hitting people with our own beam as we castigate them for their splinter.