I am a Jewish woman who has lived in the middle of the Bible belt, and I can testify to some of the hypocrisy of some of my “Christian” neighbors. I also should preface this by saying that this not true of EVERYONE I met, just a small-but-significant proportion.
For example, to some of these people, every moment is an opportunity to “witness” for the Lord. “I wuz a no-good, drinkin’, thievin’ liar till I found Jesus and He healed my life and made me perfect in every way”. These same people would twist a knife in your back if you weren’t looking. I think I’ve been cheated in business dealings more by “Christians” than by any other group. These people then have the unmitigated chutzpah to insist they only had the purest motives because “They have Jesus in their heart”. I’ve also had people tell me to my face that it’s not so bad to cheat Jews because after all, we’re so much richer than everyone else. (If that’s true, why am I working when I could be at home, living a life of leisure?)
I agree with whoever it was that said that the hypocrisy level is because Christianity is a religion that gains adherents by proselytizing. Jews, Muslims, and other religions simply accept their religion as a part of their life and don’t really advertise their faiths. The more you advertise, the more scrutiny you attract, and the more people look for and hold you accountable for your misdeeds.
This is, after all, part of the reason Gingrich, Livingston, et al. left Congress after the Clinton scandal a few years back. If the advertising says it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
Fundamentalism in general seems to lend itself to hypocricy, since these people are so convinced they’re right and so determined to advance their agenda without compromise that they’ll say anyting.
For example, they’ll make unsuported, absolutist statements like, “The Bible is the inerrant word of God”, then dismiss evolution as “just a theory”.
Fundamentalists don’t hesitate to use power, when they have it, to abridge others’ rights in accordance with their doctrine, but whenever they don’t get their way, they play the victim.
A couple of examples of Muslims being hypocritical:
I frequently hear American Muslims complain of “anti-Muslim bias” in the reporting of events in the Middle East. Yet many of these news stories are of violent attacks committed in the name of Islam by groups with extreme anti-Western bias. Does the phrase “Great Satan” mean anything to you?
A subtle one: A few years ago, here in Minnesota, a Muslim woman wearing a chador was arrested for violating an obscure law against appearing in public wearing a mask to conceal one’s features. Many protested, saying the law was anti-Muslim and that such women should be allowed to wear whatever they like in the name of diversity and women’s rights. I agree she should have been left alone, but where she comes from, women do not have the right to wear whatever they like on their heads, and they do not respect diversity and women’s rights.
sqweels, neither of those Islam anecdotes is an example of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy means professing principles that you do not personally live up to.
It is not hypocritical to point out anti-Islamic bias in American media just because there also exists anti-Western bias in Islamic media. The American media are being criticized on the basis of their own professed principle of “fair and unbiased reportage;” if our media indulge in unjust Muslim-bashing because it appeals to American anti-Muslim prejudice, they’re being hypocritical.
It is not hypocritical for an American Muslim to protest a legal dress code on the grounds of religious freedom just because some Islamic states legally impose religious dress codes. The American law is being criticized on the basis of our own constitutional principle of religious freedom; if our courts try to restrict that freedom specifically for Muslims, they’re being hypocritical.
You seem to think that avoiding hypocrisy means that you can’t condemn any unjust action without simultaneously condemning anyone else who commits the same unjust action. Not true at all. It is often perfectly reasonable just to criticize one wrongdoer at a time. (Though to avoid falling into hypocrisy as you seem to define it, I should add that I too have sometimes made hasty and illogical arguments in my posts. :))
Well, Kimstu, perhaps I’m defining hypocricy incorrectly, but if a group that you identify with is not only as guilty but more guilty of what you are criticizong another group for, then there is a problem.
I think it goes back to this question. In the US, some 80% claim they are Christians. But about 20% (OK< I’m pulling this number out of thin air) probably have READ the Bible. Now if I told you I was a Marxist, but I’d never read anything Karl Marx wrote or said, you’d think, hUMMMM. If you told me what he believed in and I said, well, I don’t believe that, you’d say “Well, then, you aren’t a Marxist”
I think many of the “hypocrits” that we see are these who claim to be Christians, and yet don’t even know what the Bible says. Sadly, we even have churches today that say they are Christian churches where you won’t hear the Bible taught. It comes down to the very debate that was recently heard at the Southern Baptist Convention about whether the Bible was “God’s revelation to man” or “man’s record of God’s revelation.” This sounds like semantics until one man got quite emotional and shouted “It’s just a book!” Total silence. That’s the dividing line. If I believe the Bible is just a book, just some guys thoughts on what God said to them, then it has no more authority than the Qu’ran, Buddha’s teachings, etc. How could (and why would I try!) to tell you that you should believe the Bible over your preferred “spiritual reference” if they’re all just human understanding of God’s revelation? The Bible has always claimed to be something different than that. In 2 Timothy 3:16 the Bible says “All Scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”.
You can start the white bashing one, but anything else isint PC (try starting a topic insulting evolution) and when u come back to it it will be in the pit:)
Christians are hypocrites because they tell you that you are evil if you sin, when there are nymerous examples in the Bible of people sinning all over the place, with their god giving his wholehearted approval. Slaughtering whole tribes, taking slaves, and killing children are the norm, as long as god tells you to do it.
Sinning isn’t doin’ the dirty deed.
Sinning is not getting god’s permission to do it first.
With “love” in your heart, of course.
Umm, Slythe, that’s the OT, those are not Christians. And the Jewish people see nothing wrong with smiting the hell out of their enemies. Neither do I, for that matter.
I have never, to my memory, moved an evolution topic to the Pit. And, indeed, many people have attacked evolution here. And all of them have felt not the blade of the moderator’s sword, but the weight of scientific evidence being shown to them.
Danielinthewolvesden, I read the OT.
It seems to me that Christianity is run somewhat like the CIA, in that whenever a Christian gets caught doing something nasty, the common refrain is,“But she/he wasn’t really a Christian, because real Christians don’t do that!” Christianity doesn’t bother to work out the major abborations in itself, it just distances itself away from them.
The Crusades, the Inquisition, The Southern Baptists forming to support slavery, Jimmy Swaggart, Falwell, Donald Wildmon, et al.-all Christian.
When I have a broken leg or a deseased hand, I try to heal it-I don’t say that I am perfectly healthy, and that those body parts aren’t really mine. The hypocricy people have pointed out was from Christians who read the very same Bible as any of you have. Not people pretending to be Christians who are following some bad copy of the Bible that has been mysteriously been passed down for thousands of years.
perhaps this might help.
until recently, i too thought ALL Christians were hypocrites. I was close, not all, but most. BUT, not because they mean to be, it’s their nature to be that way in that they grew up with a culture of Christianity to teach them what they know, and unless they can open themselves to diregard everything they were taught, and learn other ways, they will never see another point of view as possible. Here’s where i explain why i come to this conclusion. A few friends of mine, some Catholic, some Baptist, one who claims he is just plain Christian, and i got into a conversation several days ago, Sunday actually, about why i chose Buddhism, and why i don’t talk to them about finding the truth about Jesus. This at first annoyed the heck out of me because they are my friends, and i don’t appreciate someone telling me that my beliefs are wrong. So in thinking about this for a minute, i realized, they don’t like someone telling them their faith is wrong either… and then through the conversation, after some major explanations of our points of views, it was clear to me that when the Christians bring up something about finding Jesus, or realizing the truth, they feel they are “Inviting” others in to see it. What i feel they fail to grasp, and this is where their cultural upbringing shows the hypocrisy, is that to others, to someone such as myself, this doesn’t feel like being “Invited”, rather, imposed upon, and with hundreds of years of “Holy Wars” wrought by the Church, it’s hard for the rest of the world, the majority of which is NOT Christian, to see it their way. So it’s my beleif that the hypocrisy that does exist comes from cultural upbringing, and a lack of clear communication do to both sides not opening the doors of understanding to the concepts of the other side. This exists between the Islamic world and the rest of the world as well, and the same rift is there between the Eastern cultures (East Asia more specifically) and the Western World.
I am no fan of the twice-born, but I don’t believe they are more hypocritical than the rest of humanity.
First we must ask, what is a Christian? Is Christian a synonym for nice? Well, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists are kind to their neighbors; they are charitable and kind. So the term ‘Christian’ must refer to something else.
What makes a Christian different from a follower of another religion? I say it is belief. If you say that you believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and his power to free a believer from sin’s penalty, death, then you are a Christian. You might be a bad Christian or a good Christian, but as long as you believe, then you can’t be called a hypocrite. Now, if you say you’re a Christian, but you pray to Allah, then you’d be a hypocrite.
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Atheists are often a good example (again not to claim they are all hypocrits either). How often have you heard an atheist say, "You are all misguided for saying you know what happens after death. CLEARLY nothing happens after death."
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I've never heard it. Anybody else? I've certainly never heard anybody say it that way. You emphasize the "CLEARLY" and then go on to point out the flaws with using such a term. You're right. But it was your made-up statement that you're criticizing!
Are you SUUUUUUURE you haven't heard ANYTHING like that on this board before. Because I have noticed it a number of times. Again I was not trying to generalize to ALL atheists, just saying some atheists do the same thing. Here is an example from AerynSun:
quote:
~~~Let me put in a good word for atheism here. As far as I'm concerned, atheism is the necessary conclusion of a reasoned examination of the world.
If I had known I would actually have to prove this point I would have tried to remember where more of these kinds of quotes are. I am not trying to pick on Aerynsun either, in further discussions he seemed a pretty reasonable guy, but this kind of quote (to me at least) implies that his perspective is superior to a non-atheist perspective, which is not (again to me) any different than religious folks witnessing.
I have only one prob, really, with Christianity (as it is practiced by certain sects and individuals) - that’s the redemption thing:
Why bother to live your life ethically, when you know that Christ will forgive you anything? G’wan - blow up a clinic, murder your wife, steal from your boss. As long as you repent before you die, God doesn’t care!
These are the Christians that scare me. Other religions don’t really have the “Get-out-of-Jail-free” card that Christianity espouses. Every Muslim, Hindu, Pagan and Buddhist knows that, sin-wise, sooner or later they’re going to have to take their lumps. Even most Atheists and Agnostics will agree that individual actions have repercussions in the universe. But Christians get to do unlimited amounts of bad things and be forgiven.
And yes, I can cite an example: 'bout a decade ago, a preacher in Texas asked his parish to pray for the deaths(!) of one or more “liberal” Supreme Court Justices, so they could nominate more “conservative” (read: religious nutball) candidates. If that ain’t the misuse of prayer I don’t know what is.
Well, I see something wrong with it (and I presume God does, too. I’m sure he filed that particular request in the “visit tribulation on requester” bin (or something of the sort).
If you ever read the New Testament, you will find one group that gets more heat than almost any other: hypocrites. I forget who said it, but we Christians would be a lot nicer bunch of folks if we were more like Jesus.
Avalongod had said: “Atheists are often a good example (again not to claim they are all hypocrits either). How often have you heard an atheist say, ‘You are all misguided for saying you know what happens after death. CLEARLY nothing happens after death.’”
I responded: “I’ve never heard it. Anybody else? I’ve certainly never heard anybody say it that way. You emphasize the ‘CLEARLY’ and then go on to point out the flaws with using such a term. You’re right. But it was your made-up statement that you’re criticizing!”
He came back:
As we will see below, what you seem to think is “anything like that” is, well, not.
I’m sure that somewhere out there is an atheist who says that. However, you made it sound pretty frequent with your “How often have you heard…” statement.
Yeah, and? That’s nothing like your “How often have you heard…” remark, above. He made it clear that it was his opinion (“As far as I’m concerned…”).
You should know by now that you can’t just say things like that here without being able to back them up.
Maybe it does seem a bit superior to you, but it’s still nothing like the statement you made above. He was giving his opinion. By your interpretation, anytime that anybody says they are right, it means they are acting superior.