Hypocrisy and the Church

The Cross - The Divine cure for our most debilitating sickness.

The right/wrong binary

We all have embedded in our thinking ideals which register in our conscience. Our upbringing is a big factor as to how these ideals get realised in the way we live our lives. We react to our upbringing in different ways. My wife hates smoking as a reaction to her childhood experience of her father’s insistence on smoking at the dinner table. It could have gone the other way. She could have taken up smoking inherited from her father’s example. Through a complex processing of various influences we either ‘react to’ or ‘comply with’ the early authorities in our lives. Adding to the mix our social environment, we all develop a sense of right and wrong. It is out of this internal binary of right and wrong that hypocrisy becomes a possibility.

A human problem

I am avoiding the religious element here because although potential hypocrisy can become more pointed in a religious context, it is no less intense in, for instance, the political sphere. Just watch “Prime Minister’s Question Time”. Like a game of ping-pong, each party having exposed their opponents hypocrisy receive, in turn, the same “whataboutery” treatment. We are left to decide not ‘who is telling the truth’ but ‘who is the least hypocritical’. Hypocrisy is a potential problem which can affect both secular and religious because we all have developed a sense of right and wrong. Shakespeare could have well been right when he famously said: “All the world's a stage and we are the actors” simply because all of us have to handle guilt and shame in one way or another.

The religious Context

An added component to our developing a sense of right and wrong can be religion. I will speak of my religion which is Christianity but what I say applies to all religions and ideologies to which we adhere. Hypocrisy is the main reason I would have nothing to do with church in my youth. I remember once, being “witnessed to” by some enthusiastic believers on Morecambe promenade and going away thinking, “These people don’t love me - they just want me as a token of their evangelistic success. They just want the confirmation of being right in their beliefs and using me to that end”. I think that there was some truth in this although my accusations were fuelled by resentment and were made by someone who was ironically equally unconscious of his own hypocrisy.¹

The developing sense of right and wrong is, like fuel to a fire, exacerbated by religious profession. Our sense of right and wrong now has been refined with additional divine endorsement as we read the Bible. Furthermore, if our religious affiliation has been confirmed by a religious experience which is the very “righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21), the criteria of right and wrong become of supreme importance. We had two moral adjudicators - others and our conscience but now we have a Supreme Third - The Creator of the Universe. The stakes are high! For all our good intentions we Christians find that we are totally unable to sustain the new moral expectancy that we feel placed upon our lives. For this reason believers can soon despair. The conflict of claiming one thing and not living it out becomes too much and many leave the faith. It is easier not to profess faith than go through life with an accusatory “hypocrite!” continually nagging in the background. Similar feelings could be referenced by the term, “Imposter Syndrome”. Is there a solution to this?

My Experience

Forty eight years ago, I became a Christian without even setting foot in a church. I came out of a rather drug infused few years in the 1970’s. It happened like this: A friend of mine, Drossos, challenged me and insisted that I ask “Jesus into my life”. As instructed, I said the words but in my mind I was saying “Oh God - get Drossos off my back!” The outward prayer I uttered was simply a pretence, a mask to make this well meaning Christian leave me alone. Surely God would not listen on the grounds of such sham or even worse judge me for my duplicity over such a serious issue. But that was not the case. Right there I was welcomed by God and this was the beginning of my Christian journey. It was as if God was saying “I don't care how you come - just come!” and so I came with my hypocrisy and I was accepted and loved. It was a pure experience of God’s unconditional love. God’s love was so unconditional that, as a new believer, I realised it had nothing to do with my sincerity or insincerity but everything to do with God’s free, unreserved and unrestrained love through Jesus Christ. It was not about me but it had everything to do with Him.

And so I learnt that Christianity has nothing to do with my abilities to win God’s favour - after all I’d never even been to church at this point or done any of those things that are commonly deemed to make us religiously acceptable. I rationalised that I could be a Christian and still take my drugs. I did not feel any threat or warning from God. It was as if God were saying “Be my guest!”. So I rolled up another “joint” and felt no restraint on God’s part - no rebuke or external reproof. I remember taking one drag and discovering I didn’t want drugs anymore. I threw them all on the fire and never touched any since. It was not an obligatory act rather than one of my own free choice. It was as if God knew that Divine Love in my heart would inspire me to do of my own free will what coercion through external law could never do. This was and still is an important distinction for me.

However, In spite of becoming a Christian by the Grace of God alone and learning of the simple efficacy of Divine Love, it did not take long for me to feel the moral pressure to live up to my profession of faith. The Bible, I was told, contained “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth” - It was “a manual” for how to live your life. Consequently, there were so many things I felt I had to get “right” and soon the initial flush of spiritual joy disappeared and my faith became a treadmill of dos and don’ts.

I attended a very lively Pentecostal Church and everyone else seemed so perfect. Even if they claimed it was not them but “it was the Lord” working in them, it was still very intimidating because they seemed to apply themselves so successfully to grace which seemed to produce such impressive devotion whereas I had obviously failed.² This particular brand of success seemed to be validated by one's spiritual fervour and the ability to say “Amen!” even when the sermon went on for over an hour - I couldn’t keep up! And this slippage from relational to performance mode would be the beginning of what I would call “soft hypocrisy.” Don’t get me wrong. I loved my new Christian family very much but subtly, what was spontaneous and alive in me slowly ebbed, and my own struggles had to be covered up if only to be an encouragement to my fellow believers. I didn’t want to let the side down. This has always been an issue for me - not just an issue but a battle! However, over the years I believe I have a few words to be of help to those Christians who also struggle and anybody else who longs to be sincere and courageous enough to be who they are wherever they find themselves to be.

Origins Of The Word

The word “hypocrisy” originates from the Greek “hypokrites” meaning literally “to decide underneath” interpreted as an actor, a stage player, a dissembler, or a pretender. It is the name that was given to the actors in ancient Greece with reference to the wearing of masks worn in their plays. An appropriate word we could use for “hypocrite” therefore is “Mask Wearer”.

Slippage

Looking back I think “If only my fellow believers could have shared their own struggles I would not have felt so intimidated by their masks”. It was the guilt I felt inside through “not getting it right” and the lonely feeling that I alone had this problem which robbed me of the authenticity of a God who “meets me where I am” and prompted the need for a religious mask. With this sense of shame there developed a shift in my perception of God from one of a Loving Father to that of a Cosmic Moralist. Mask-wearing seemed to be the most natural thing to do. Since Adam and Eve clothed ‘themselves with fig leaves’ and ‘hid among the trees of the garden’ the drama has devilishly continued in religion, politics, social interaction and every area of life. The feeling of guilt and duplicity is not hypocrisy but when guilt is unresolved by Grace we reach for our masks. And where Grace ends Hypocrisy begins! “This world is no friend of Grace” because human hubris would sooner put on an act than be challenged and replaced by humble dependance.

Soft Hypocrisy

This first “soft” level of hypocrisy has little to do with others but is more a coping mechanism to assuage the pain we feel internally. St John puts it thus “If we say we have no sin³ we deceive OURSELVES” (1 John 1). This self deceit is reinforced through perpetuating acts with no inner conviction. Soon we believe the lie we are perpetuating and then we become adept at our mask wearing and deceive OTHERS. Whereas I felt intimidated by mask-wearing others, I now, though largely unconscious of it, intimidate others and exacerbate their inner loneliness. And so the “circle game” continues. Masks come in all shapes and sizes: Religious, Pious, Academic, Enthusiastic, Intellectual, Funny, Political, Woke (both Left and Right wing), Humble, Altruistic. The highest qualities attributed to human behaviour can be but masks we wear to avoid the pain of vulnerability. Social media has facilitated this exponentially.

A Contradiction

Here I would like to look at another side of the same issue. Oftentimes we do have to just go through the motions of love when we feel we are just putting on a mask. In his book “Mere Christianity” C.S. Lewis says “Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you do. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love them. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking them more. If you do them a good turn, you will find yourself disliking them less.”

We seem to have come across a tension here. Both behaviours (hypocritical and “acting as if”) are similar in that we are doing something externally but there is an internal contradiction. And yet one is hypocrisy and one is not. How are we to tell the difference? It all has to do with intention. Hypocrisy involves wearing a mask in order to deceive, and the other would be behaving with the sincere intention of bringing good in the situation. One is born out of fear and one out of love. When we are internally honest about our hypocrisy, our masks drop and immediately the actions that were intended to protect ourselves can be transmuted into actions based on sincerity and love.

Hard Hypocrisy

The Pharisees were the religious leaders in Gospels and demonstrated what I would call hard hypocrisy. This exaggerated form of hypocrisy has to do more with manipulation and control. Jesus was at his most severe when it came to his interactions with these religious leaders in Jerusalem … “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs” he said - and much more - read Matthew Chapter 23 for his full blown outrage at their hypocrisy. Sometimes Jesus didn’t just describe them as hypocrites but used the term as a replacement for their name. “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men…” Hypocrite equals Pharisee in Jesus’ estimation.

It is possible that, when someone has perfected their hypocrisy they have persuaded themselves and others to the extent that their mask has become convincingly who they are. Public approbation can reward them with positions of power and control. They really think they are that special but it was for this that Jesus castigated the Pharisees. Hard hypocrisy has to do with spiritual pride, overt power and control over others. It has at least 4 flavours of control:

1: “You have to do it - even though I secretly don't do it myself”. Jesus: “you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”

2: “I accuse you of being wrong (Though secretly so am I)” While doubtless a religious problem, I suspect this in every sphere of life - in some areas one would be hard pressed not to see a religious pious element even in the most secular contexts. Paul “At whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.” ⁴

3: “Do as I say not as I do” - This we find more in secular situations with low stakes. In a sense it is not hypocrisy because there is no mask involved. But there is a contradiction similar to the first.

4: “Do as I do even though it has nothing to do with what is good and productive” This is more subtle. Picking corn on the Sabbath, Healing on the Sabbath, and eating with “Publicans and sinners” were man-made rules that had nothing to do with God. Jesus broke these rules and many others. He later said that the whole law was summed up (abbrev) in loving God and loving others. Man-made rules were irrelevant. Having inwardly failed in the spirit of the law the Pharisees invented rules for their own self deceit and imposed them on others. They were coercing others into their own hypocritical lifestyle. “Become religious and play the game with me for my own validation”

Or as Bob Dylan put it:

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society’s pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he’s in.

(“It’s Alright Ma” Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.)

Summary

So Hypocrisy is fear-based mask wearing which we engage in because of unresolved failed internalised expectations which produce guilt and shame. With our masks we can fool ourselves, fool others and ultimately exercise power and control over others. This happens everywhere and all the time. We all do it at some level. According to Paul Tournier: “A guilty conscience is the seasoning of our daily life. All upbringing is a cultivation of the sense of guilt on an intensive scale.” (Guilt and Grace P10) This ‘seasoning’ of guilt, unresolved leads on to hypocrisy. If the root cause of hypocrisy is shame and guilt then this is what we have to deal with. Simply trying harder to live up to built-in expectations will just not work. It will make things worse - As Paul says “The power of sin is in the Law” (1 Corinthians 15:56). The stress we feel which internal guilt places upon us provokes us, not to improve, but rather to further failure and shame. A vicious circle that needs to be broken. The only power that guilt has is to strengthen self hatred and to perpetuate hypocrisy separating us from others, our true selves and our sense of a loving God. Christ came to put an end to this. He is “The end of the law for righteousness” or as another version tells us “The end of the struggle for righteousness”.

Seeking a Remedy

I have often said “The best way to not be a Pharisee is to confess you are one!” However my wife, Carol, points out that there is something disconcerting here. While confessing my hypocrisy spares me of the accusation of being a hypocrite, taking the wind out of the sails of my accusers, it can be seen to be a somewhat trite way of dealing with something with such important moral implications - a kind of a cop out. A sort of adolescent “Yeh ok I'm a hypocrite. Whatever!”. However, in spite of this risk, we must start with this honest confession. If we don't acknowledge the problem we are not going to seek a remedy.

Checkmate!

“Confession” means in the Greek to “speak the same” or “agree with” - in our case saying: “Yes I am a hypocrite”. That said, if Carol is right, perhaps even my trite confession is yet another mask - a ‘way out’ clause for me to keep God at a distance and maintain my pretense. So I confess even my confession is hypocritical! There is as Paul says - “A repentance that needs repenting of” (2 Corinthians 7:10)⁵. I detect something similar in confessing that even your confession is insincere.

Uncomfortable as it is, I love it when this happens to me. Cornered! The Apostle Paul had the same experience when he threw up his arms and cried “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do - who shall rescue me from this body of death?”. When we come to an end of ourselves, God can take over. It is a bit like a game of chess when a “checkmate” happens - there are no moves left to make - the game is over. If that is the case, there is absolutely nowhere to turn. Checkmate! Whichever move I make there is no way out. The play must end - it’s over - masks must fall. This is where God wants us where all we can do is stand still without any agenda and let God do what only God can do. It is there, at the Cross, where we fall, with or without our masks (God loves us either way), into the hands of God. We call it surrender. If there is a mask there - it will fall.

Perfect love

I don’t think that we can, however, surrender to God with such openness and trust if we are not clear as to Who this God is. We will not let go of the mask if love is tainted and there is even a hint of punishment. “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear (mask-wearing) has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” I John 4:18. We return once again to the Cross which not only reveals the truth but is the means whereby “The veil is taken away”⁶. The Cross is where the “Unmasked” One, in perfect confession, owns our hypocrisy as if it was his. It is the place, with Him, to which we are invited to go. As our representative, His perfect confession becomes ours.

Sharing his confession

The sincerity of the heart of Jesus was in perfect alignment with the unconditional love of His Father. Our fallen condition is such that we cannot help entertaining somewhere in our hearts that God is, as I have said, a Cosmic Moralist whose only insistence is for us to “get it right”. It does not come natural for us to see that God is pure unfailing love whose primary desire for us is not moral but relational - we find it easier to think we should be right in order to win approval rather than accepting love without any strings attached and being thereby transformed. When God said concerning Jesus “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased”, He was not saying “This is my Son who keeps all the rules perfectly and gets it right” but “This is my Son who receives perfectly my unconditional love and reflects it perfectly from His heart to mine in unconditional surrender”. So Jesus invites us to share His communal experience with the Father through inviting us (in)to the Cross and sharing in His confession …. and our masks fall away!

Finally

Hypocrisy seems to evoke the most hostility when it applies to someone else and conversely it is the one aspect of our own lives we are least willing to admit to. Perhaps because it reaches deep into the darkest parts of our souls It takes courage to drop the mask of pretense and own the truth - a courage that religion-ism seems to have failed to give but that in which Jesus Christ never fails and invites us to enter into. May God help us. Without Him we can do nothing but with Him all things are possible!

1. This is an example of what is called “the irony of denial”. The irony of denial is where in the very process of denying an aspect of oneself we are actually raising the possibility that we are confirming that very aspect. For example, I remember hearing a speaker once say ”I don't care what people think of me” and remember, listening to him, thinking he was really saying “I care that you think of me as someone who doesn't care about what people think of them”! Similarly I've heard people say “I'm not proud!” indicating that they seem to be quite proud of their humility. To accuse someone of hypocrisy is implying that you don't consider yourself to be a hypocrite - Quite possibly a hypocritical statement in itself and another case of the irony of denial.

2. This is a bit like someone saying to the Church musician how wonderful their playing was during the service. “It was not me - It was the Lord“ was her response. “It wasn’t that good” was the reply!

3. (harmartia see: Bows & Arrows)

4. See also Matthew 7: 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

5. As someone has said “True repentance is never satisfied with itself“. Neither should it ever seek to be. True repentance is not something we pay as in a contract but rather a gift born out of relational love.

6. Moses had a similar problem. We are told that he came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. Apparently his face was glowing so he wore a veil. Why? So they wouldn't be blinded by the glory? Apparently not. The Apostle Paul tells us: “We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was fading away.” He was wearing it as a mask because the glory was fading! So the church is plagued with tired Christians putting on their masks to avoid others seeing their inner defeat. However Paul goes on to say “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.“