Hypocrisy

[Waus]

I was thinking a little bit tonight - and I was wondering...is "hypocrisy" in a way just a deterrent to people doing the right thing? In other words, can you no longer hold high ideals if you know that you can't meet them yourself?

I was thinking that Christians are all in a sense branded "hypocrits" as soon as they decide they're Christians. I mean, no one is perfect, so how can I say that I believe in all these things if they're standards I can't meet myself?

Kind of like in the Scarlet Letter when the priest is determined to keep on being a priest because he thinks that he'll ultimately do more good for people while they believe in him compared to if he confessed to all of them he was the one who got uh...Heather (what was that girl's name?) pregnant.

Thoughts?

[QueenAdrock]

I only think people are hypocritical when they hold people to higher standards than they're willing to meet. If they're willing to meet it, it doesn't matter as much if they reach their goal - they TRY their hardest to and that is what makes them non-hypocritical. No one's expected to be perfect. If they TRULY strive for the ideal, then that's good enough for me.

I just don't like it when they say "Judge not lest ye be judged" and go around talking shit about other people. Or if one were to say "You should be more earth-friendly," and drive around gas-guzzling SUVs just for status. Things that you could easily change but don't care to look at, don't want to change for yourself. I wouldn't hold it against someone if they said something like "You should learn how to control your anger," and then blew up at someone the next day - AS LONG as they were working on their problem themselves. Anger is a natural human trait and takes some truly hard work to control...if they themselves were taking steps to control their anger issues, I wouldn't think they were being hypocritical - just offering others advice that they're trying to take as well.

That's where I draw the line.

[kaiser soze]

Hypocricy -

Replacing torture chambers with torture chambers!!

Who the fuck are we liberating anyways?!

:)