Happy Hypocrites
I love what Bill writes about hypocrisy. And I love his quote of Matthew Arnold's, something like "Hypocrisy is virtue's way of paying honor to vice." Wait, let me check that and get back to you. I might have got that wrong.
[The correct quote is, "hypocrisy is vice's way of paying homage to virtue." -- PB]
Here I am, the cranky UU gadfly, working on a sermon about why it's so hard to say "thanks" and "I love you" within the church context. The reason? Because we're all so painfully aware of how much MORE work there is to be done, we hardly dare celebrate enough what we ARE doing well and with great love.
Can you believe that your very own PeaceBang is one of those ministers who doesn't think we celebrate ourselves enough?
I'm either a huge hypocrite, or just really inconsistent.
The moral of the story is, keep talking about it, and keep loving our faith. And don't take PB too seriously.
[The correct quote is, "hypocrisy is vice's way of paying homage to virtue." -- PB]
Here I am, the cranky UU gadfly, working on a sermon about why it's so hard to say "thanks" and "I love you" within the church context. The reason? Because we're all so painfully aware of how much MORE work there is to be done, we hardly dare celebrate enough what we ARE doing well and with great love.
Can you believe that your very own PeaceBang is one of those ministers who doesn't think we celebrate ourselves enough?
I'm either a huge hypocrite, or just really inconsistent.
The moral of the story is, keep talking about it, and keep loving our faith. And don't take PB too seriously.
posted by PeaceBang at 7:04 PM
2 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I would have said for Evangelicals rather than Fundamentalists but it's splitting hairs for this purpose.
Hypocricy is a core value for them. It's the cycle of the fall from grace and rebirth, and they find happening over and over again.
It's powerful because they start from the reality of evil; which everyone senses. And that we're all hyporcites and failures if we don't admit evil with in us.
There's a truth there we shouldn't scoff at.
I always look for those hypocrital moments (in me or elsewhere) because I always find some truth in the contradiction.
Evangelicals do get tangled with the practical application.
For example, a few years ago the youth pastor at our local mega church was convicted for rape when it was found he had been dating a young girl since age 16 for a few years.
He got something like ten years in prison for it, and the membership was out protesting angrily about it. They said he had repented and asked foregiveness...
I don't doubt God's forgiveness, but that's between God and his soul. It didn't absolve his debt to the people of Illinois.
Post a Comment
<< Home