Chastek - Hypocrisy

Ramble on hypocrisy

October 18, 2011 at 8:49 am (Uncategorized)

Christ’s condemnations of hypocrisy are the constant refrain of his moral teaching. Familiarity with the Gospels make this seem obvious or unremarkable, but this is not the first thing one would expect to be condemned. If we had to guess what the chief condemnation of a religious teacher would be, I doubt that hypocrisy would make the list.
They say that hypocrites are those who one thing and does another. I say “they say” because this definition is simply is in the air and repeated like an urban legend. It’s false: a spy is not a hypocrite even if he says one thing and does another, and for that matter, promise breaking or welching on deals is not a sort of hypocrisy. These actions are mere deception or lying. Still, the definition hints at the truth: both hypocrisy and lying involve a conflict or unlikeness between what is visible and exterior and what is interior and of the heart. Christ really did condemn, say, the wearing of phylacteries or public displays of ones lowliness that were not signs of the law written on the heart or a true recognition of ones wretchedness, but those who do these things aren’t exactly lying. Why not?
Lying without qualification deceives another. The liar knows full well what he is saying is a lie and there is no soft-headedness or confusion about the fact. He might justify his lie but he’s aware that he is telling it. In my own experience with hypocrisy, the lie has faded or been softened out of sight – it has entered into ones personality. The actions one does and the opinions he holds about things are tailored to establishing his position in the world. The hypocrite no longer asks the question “what should I do” in accordance with what is innermost in himself or in light of what gives life an ultimate meaning or what is true in the world around him- all these things are replaced by position in the world or practical necessity or getting by with ones lot, and the hypocrite “really believes” that these are what are most worth living for, though it is truer to say that he simply no longer asks this sort of question. Hypocrisy is a metastasized lie – the hypocrite no longer just deceives others but succeeds in deceiving even himself.
This self-lie makes all conversion impossible since the hypocrite can no longer see the division between what he is, what is in his power, and what he ought to be. Though hypocrisy is a vice, but its opposite is not exactly a virtuous person – the prostitute or tax collector who hates what they are and wishes they could be something else have the light opposed to hypocrisy. In the doctrine of Christ, this light remains even in the virtuous, since no one could come to be virtuous without first recognizing that they lacked the power to accomplish this of themselves. Taken in this way, hypocrisy is opposed to humility.

Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself.
Brothers Karamazov C VII