Hypocrisy

Americans hate hypocrisy. It is a personality trait which drives people away. Even among villains, we prefer the kind who are openly vile rather than the smooth, ingratiating backstabber who says one thing and does another.

That is why so many were upset recently when Joe Paterno, the football coach at Penn St. University, decided to play a starting quarterback who has been arrested and charged with a violent assault. That may seem a small thing college football today, because it has happened in a number of places and tarnished the reputation of other respected coaches (Bobby Bowden, Tom Osborne, etc.), but what made this a special case was that Paterno is a man who has made it a point to preach ethics and respectability, character above winning. He is the one who said upon being offered an NFL job, ""I could never leave college football to the Barry Switzers and Jackie Sherrills of the world.""

Somewhere, Switzer and Sherrill must be laughing and reserving the seat next to them for Paterno. And somewhere, a high school recruit is changing his mind about playing for a man who may have only appeared to have integrity.

This article is not about college football. It is not really even about Joe Paterno. The point is that what made so many people angry at this particular coach's ethical failings is the hypocrisy aspect of it. Paterno's life suddenly does not agree with what he has said in the past.

Unfortunately, this is a most serious problem for those of us in the religious world. Jesus, speaking to the ultra-religious of His day, said, ""Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness"" (Matt. 23:27).

Hypocrisy is an attempt to beautify what is truly ugly merely by covering it up. As layer upon layer of ""fake religion"" is applied to our sin, some, even many, may be fooled. Be assured God is not. God works in a realm where His word is capable of ""piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart"" (Heb. 4:12).

If hypocrisy repels so much, it is easily seen why so many have been ""turned off"" by a religion which says, ""Act pious and self-righteous on Sunday, live like a heathen the rest of the week."" We must live what we say we believe. We must practice what we preach, and one reason we must do so is to prevent the church from being charged with hypocrisy. What a terrible thing on judgment day to have to answer the saddened face of Christ as we are made to realize those we drove away with our hypocrisy.