Christians… Little Christs or Big Hypocrites?

I have always thought that Christians are often unfairly judged to be hypocrites. It is a very common experience cited by non-Christians for why they do not like or themselves want to become Christians. I’ve often thought that such comments, although undeniably true (its very difficult to argue with an experience), was a complete cop-out.

Afterall, I’m sure that many people have had bad experiences with Muslims and Buddhists, but no one would use this argument against them. Taking that further, I’m sure many people have also had bad experiences with teachers, the opposite sex, and even family members, but it is pure folly to generalise and write off such categories or classes of people, resolving to have nothing to do with them.

In addition, I used to counter this argument by suggesting that the main reason why Christians were targeted is because they purport to have and live in accordance with a higher standard of morality – God’s standard. Naturally, when they do falter (which certainly happens from time to time), those around will be quick to pounce! Another typical Christian response is to suggest, quoting the bible, that the unsaved world ‘love darkness rather than light’ because the ‘light will expose the darkness of their hearts’ so it would be expected that they are constantly on the lookout for them to slip-up.

However, something has happened to me recently which has caused me to revisit this issue. All I will say is that it involves a family member who I have been investing a lot of time and effort in trying to help (due in part to misguided feelings of family responsibility, my soft-heartedness/compassion, and an unrealistic self-expectation to keeping promises) and have been repaid in ingratitude, resentment and a judgmental spirit. This has left me feeling very hurt, disappointed, and admittedly, angry (mostly because its a family member and also because I went way beyond what I would've done for anyone else). I now regret any and all attempts to help this person. I was very foolish.

I’ve come to realise that often it is not the fact that Christians ‘merely’ slip-up or falter. It is because they claim and purport (either by their words or action - not necessarily explicitly) to have ‘achieved’ or ‘attained’ this level of spirituality and holiness. In other words, while other Christians strive towards such ideals (recognising that they may never be achieved in this life-time) these people claim that it is attainable, in fact, that they have attained it, through the things that they say and/or through their behaviour. This then translates into them looking down upon all others (those who either are struggling, unable to attain this level of spirituality, or do not make any attempts to meet such standards).

The reason why this is annoying, to say the least, is that they not only do not come close to attaining that standard, but they continually deceive themselves into thinking that they’ve arrived or are succeeding ‘more often than not’. This ‘knowledge’ is used as a licence to view those around them with disdain – it brings to mind the picture of the Pharisees described in the bible ‘thanking God that they’re not like the sinner beside them’. In addition, just like the Pharisees of old, they use their cover of spirituality to commit even grosser crimes (sins) against their God and the people around them. All justified by making reference to laws (biblical) which they have interpreted at their convenience and have unilaterally expanded.

One example can be seen in the following: When God says they ought to work to the best of their ability (as a form of service to God no less) they skive and use office time to do church-related activities. Another example is the husband/father who leaves his wife and/or children in order to spend more time doing "ministry" activities (not regarding his responsbilities in the home and to his family as significantly important - Quality Time spent with the family, building strong relationships with one another, meeting their social and emotional needs, etc). These are then justified as a higher-order work therefore relinquishing their liability from any express biblical principles or laws to the contrary.

Another similarity can be seen when they have an overbearing need to make overt and dramatic displays of spirituality - obssessively attending every conceivable church activity, punctuating every sentence with either direct quotations from biblical texts or with the phrase 'God willing' (wait a minute, other religions do this too - where's the Christian claim to exclusivity now?), and even making great public and poetic 'prayer-shows'. Do these showings really bring one closer to God and/or make one more spiritual? If so, we should all learn from the Pharisees.

I now believe that it is the combination of this false religiosity, false humility, and judgmental spirit that is the cause of non-Christians rejecting Christianity. Only time will tell the amount of disservice that these people are doing to the cause of Christ.