Do you know a religious person who ISN'T hypocrite?

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I just posted a response to the "love your neighbor" thread that fits here. My complaint about other Christians is how seldom Christians don't really want to "grow up" in their faith. They get saved and are content to point fingers at everyone else while ignoring their own spiritual deficiencies. Babies don't really know anything else but to cry and scream until their needs are provided for. The problem with us happens when we get so content with "baby food" that we don't seek what we need to really grow. God won't spoon-feed us forever. Something we do at our house is we certainly take care of our children and their needs. But MOST of the time, we distance ourselves from our kids and put the 3-year old in charge of his little sister who isn't that much younger than he is. Rather than breaking up fights and scooping them up and comforting them or harshly punishing them, we'll let them fight it out. The oldest understands that you don't do things to harm other people and he understands what it means to hurt someone's feelings. The youngest doesn't yet have a concept of sharing, and they're both in that phase in which neither has interest in a toy unless the other is playing with it--THEN we all of a sudden have to share. But when we take a toy away and give it to the other, the other won't be willing to share and the other is upset. So teaching justice doesn't work if we just give the kids what they want. So we leave it alone. Either one or the other will lose interest, or they'll work out their differences on their own. As such, they are EXTREMELY close and hate being away from each other, despite all the fighting. They teach EACH OTHER better than we, their parents, ever could.

And that's the thing about Christian cruelty and hypocrisy. We don't lead each other and we don't rely on God for guidance. What sucks for you is that you'll have to accept a lot of this irresponsibility on the part of others in regards to how they treat you--been there, done that. But you SHOULD at least be able to find some kind of small support system within your church. A lot of people will complain about church people for being clique-ish. But cliques can be a good thing because they are usually made up with people with similar interests or problems. In that case, pay no attention to those outside your own circle giving you a hard time. Just be careful not to respond in kind.

Something that is always a source of temptation for me and my wife is retaliating or talking openly when we hear about things going on at different levels in our church that directly relate to things that happened to us last year. One particular person who is highly suspect is a shameless gossip, and when my wife and I discussed things that she said about certain others in our church leadership, I gently reminded her that if either of us discuss this outside our family, it could very easily turn into a trap. It's one of those things that could cause me to lose my job, that's just how serious it is. It would be bad enough if those things are true, but how much worse would they be if they were NOT true? We've been badly abused by those in our church, but that is no reason to cause worse things to happen, even if they are deserved. Further, for every 1 person who has hurt us, there are 2 more in our circle of friends who have supported us through our ordeal. Being hungry for vengeance does absolutely no good in this situation. Let God deal with them.

We also know that our days in that church are numbered, anyway. We will probably confront those who have done us harm and we'll leave the bridge-burning to those we leave behind. Pray that you can somehow rise above what is happening and that the Spirit will show you where to go if your present church is no longer a supportive or nurturing place for you. Moreover, pray that those who have done you harm will see their errors and cease making those same mistakes.

Have you met every human to check whether your assertion is true?

ruveyn

Trips, I'm sorry you're feeling upset. It seems like careless words, from any person, have a way of instantly undermining whatever 'good' was originally intended.

Well, without getting into the sadistic part of it, I would say all humans miss the mark at some point.

Whose mark?

Have you checked out that generalization empirically?

There are two very tricky words: "all" and "every".

ruveyn

My "assumption" is based on basic psychology and data from studies and experiments, as well as my own observation of the hundreds of humans I see every day both in real life and on TV.

And yes, I know the TV may be unreliable, but I don't get data from the characters' actions, I look at how popular reality shows and such are, and look at the kind of shows which "sell", and make observations based on it.

The results of my media observation show that we as a society enjoy watching people attack each other and have arguments for our entertainment.

Hmm...

lulz

What a ridiculous question.

EVERYBODY is a hypocrite. Even me.

Do you know a non-religious person who can be called a hypocrite? Without a standard to judge by, a non-religious person can do exactly the same actions as a religious person, yet only the one who has a standard is called out for it. Both actions can be identical, but it is more easy to emphasize the misconduct of a person who has a standard that they intend to live by than it is to say anything against someone who claims no standard.

Absence of a religion does not mean an absence of standards to live by.

A person with no standards could claim to be a Christian making your whole statement completely moot. How does one determine if any given individual, religious or not, has a standard?

"Missing the mark" as in none of us are perfect. Every one is imperfect.

I could discover a cure for AIDS, give all my money to the homeless and still be an insensitive jerk by bad mouthing somebody behind their back.

Last edited by Maranatha on 13 Oct 2010, 9:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Those who aren't hypocrites (or less hypocrites) are actually more dangerous.

Cromwell and Savonarola were very pious, as was Khomeini.

Closet-bisexual catholic priests or liberal protestant ministers who claim that christianity is about being tolerant and is equal to all other religions are actually preferable in relation to real fanatics.

Usually when a person makes a claim of association with a religion, such as Christianity, they leave others to assume that the Bible is their standard. In the situation which you mention, it especially stinks when people who reject the moral standards of the Bible make such a claim and then do things like publicly commit sin and such of the sort that leaves certain types of people to think less of Christianity and the Bible than they are already predisposed to think. How does one determine if any given individual has a standard? By their responses to situations. Their choices indicate what they value more and what they value less.

Fine, let me refine that with a single word: set. An atheist may have moral codes or not, just as anyone else, but they are by no means set. Consider the franchise of Star Trek and all the petty bickering over the concocted Prime Directive. That is the case of an arbitrary standard, which actually was set, but it is a standard which is designed to get in the way of what the main characters desire to do, and as such it is near constantly under question and often violated in order to save lives or some other noble endeavor.

Somewhat like the Ten Commandments.

ruveyn