Hypokrisis

A note on religious hypocrisy

"No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures." Camus, The Fall

Religious hypocrites take a great deal of pride in the adoption of rigid rules of behavior contrary to their actual urges in order to conquer the desires they are ashamed of and to thereby elevate themselves to a false, godly sense of superiority over their selves and others. While doing those moral "works," they often argue that faith saves and that works are futile. Indeed, their neurotic works are largely futile - they do however provide some useful character armor. We should not therefore be surprised to find them engaging in the very activity they incessantly denounce. For instance, a leading member of the Christian right, a married man who gives eloquent sermons on the sanctity of monogamous marriage, has been spotted recently in disreputable houses with both male and female prostitutes. He has also been observed by undercover policemen looking at peep shows in the back room of an adult bookstore.

Likewise, someone who is constantly preaching love may be doing so because of his underlying hatred of the human race. A certain preacher hates "humanists" including Christian humanists because he hates himself and his race, yet he professes his undying love for his god incarnated in human form. Thus does he replicate Satan, loving his god alone, while hating man.

We find uncompromising, judgmental attitudes in hypocrites - ambiguity is intolerable to them. We find bigotry, hatred, fixation on some fantastic fetish either real or symbolic. A religious hypocrite feels that if he does not believe in a certain creed or perform a certain ritual, his life will not be saved from its present suffering or anticipated hell. For example, the religious addict will be saved if he compulsively prays to god, blindly cites scripture and twists it to his purpose, devotes himself to the church and nothing else, or to his god alone, and so on. Reason is of little avail to the religious hypocrite because he relies on "god's mysteries" to justify his irrational conduct. Anything opposed to his fearful addiction is blasphemy, for the action in itself serves as his fetish: he associates his conduct with the holy spirit.

Some people believe that the religious hypocrite is merely a fool or a bigot, not really a hypocrite, since his faith is true and he has no intention to deceive. But that argument is obviously mistaken. The religious hypocrite does intend to deceive himself and others; that is why he is a bigot in the first place, and why he loves to argue that faith not works saves. He who has genuine faith does not have to argue it into existence. He provides proof of his faith in his good works.