People may refuse to attend religious institutions for a multitude of reasons, but in my spiritual direction practice, if I ask Christians if they belong to any spiritual community, they often reply they don’t go to church because churches are full of hypocrites. I imagine people of other faiths have the same reason for not going to synagogues, mosques, or temples.
What is hypocrisy? It’s pretending to be what you aren’t. It’s espousing high ideals (compassion and generosity) on Sunday, and then living by a different set of values (competition and greed) the rest of the week. Hypocrisy is the opposite of authenticity and sincerity.
Non-religious people usually do not mind religious people who are authentic and sincere, who “walk their talk.” What they do mind are religious people who engage in hypocrisy. In this they are in good company. The only thing that made Jesus angry was hypocrisy.
Jesus handled hypocrisy in three basic ways. He used vitriol, blasting self-righteous religious people: “You hypocrites, you brood of vipers! You are like whitewashed tombs: beautiful on the outside but full of corruption within!” Or he got physical, clearing the temple of moneychangers and demanding to know why the religious authorities had allowed God’s house of prayer to become a den of robbers? Or he used humour: “Friend, why do you try to remove the sliver of wood in your brother’s eye, when you haven’t removed the log in your own?”
I am often tempted to use humour in my practice: “Don’t let your idea that the church is full of hypocrites stop you from coming. There’s always room for one more!” Although I don’t use it, this joke might make the non-churchgoer think because it implies that perhaps they are not living in complete accord with their highest ideals either.
The person who judges another as a hypocrite must have high ideals and be living up to those ideals themselves, or they have no right to make that judgment. However, our society as a whole, not just the church, is filled with hypocrisy.
We tell our children not to gossip or drink and then do it ourselves. We say we love our spouses in Valentine’s cards and then treat them badly the rest of the year. Unions say they are going on strike to serve the public better when it seems like their real motive is even higher pay. Corporate advertising is often deceptive. Politicians espouse high ideals and then fight for power.
A helpful way to look at all this might be: hypocrisy and authenticity are on a continuum, and everyone, both in religion and society, is somewhere on the continuum. In both religion and society, the actions of some do not match their ideals at all, and for some, their actions and ideals are totally integrated. The latter are called “saints” in religion, and “together” in society.
Churches, like the rest of society, do have hypocrites. However, no church I know of claims to be a society of the perfect. Going to church does not mean you no longer have human weaknesses and are not exposed to temptations like the rest of us. Most churchgoers I know are very aware of their imperfections and go because they need God’s help and the support of a religious community in living their faith. In other words, they go out of humility, not pride.
In short, to those who judge churchgoers as hypocrites, I would only ask two questions: “Friend, where are you on the continuum?” And “Have you removed the log in your own eye?”
Bruce Tallman is a London spiritual director and educator of adults in religion.
Intelligent Christian Spirituality 