The Hypocrisy Problem in Church Today

Lifeway released some interesting survey results recently. They basically surveyed specific attitudes of people that don't go to church. This was the stat that caught my attention:

• 72% of the people surveyed said that they thought the church was full of hypocrites.

Well.... I never. While something like this can seem like an insult, I do have to admit that these people are correct. Churches are full of hypocrites. Before you think you can predict the rest of my thoughts here and think that I am going to decry the amount of hypocrisy in church today, I want to explore a slightly different path here.

What is hypocrisy, anyway? We throw it around a lot - but what does it mean to be a hypocrite? You can basically look at hypocrisy as a lie - you say one thing and do another. This ties in with something else I read today: a study that claims that the average person tells almost 88,000 lies in their life time (3-5 times per day). So, the sad fact is - we are all hypocrites. Churches are full of hypocrites because the world is full of hypocrites.

The real rub here is that one of the functions of a church is to reveal hypocrisy. And this is actually a good thing. Sure - you go to church to worship and pray. But you should also go to get your life examined from an outside perspective, so that your hypocrisy is exposed and you can actually change it. Not to have fingers pointed at you or to get judged, but to actually help you become a better person.

So what this all means is that people who don't go to church don't want to come, in part, because they see the hypocrisy in other people's lives that has already been exposed.

Great. So.... what can you do about the fact that people don't want to come to church because the church is doing one of the things that the church is supposed to do? Beats me. It's this big lie that we all believe in America that hypocrisy is worse than any other mistake you can make, and that being a hypocrite means that what you believe in is wrong because of your hypocrisy and not because of any actual truth behind it. Or that you should avoid someone because they don't actually do what they say they believe. If this were true, I guess we would all have to lock ourselves in our houses, get online jobs, and never interact with other human beings.

But such is the mindset that we have to work with in modern America. How to convince people that they actually need the very thing that is turning them off right now. Luckily, that's not the real issue here. But it's one that I'm sure will cause many discouraging conversations around the nation on a daily basis. Most churches will probably work to find a way to be less hypocritical. That's always a good goal, but one we will have to work on for the rest of our lives. And probably not the quickest way to convince people to visit your church.

Come to think of it, realizing the truth about global hypocrisy, it kind of puts an interesting spin on all the churches that are trying to reach people by just "being real"? In "being real," wouldn't that mean they would be letting their hypocrisy hang out in the wind for everyone to see? Wouldn't that mean that they are actually pushing more people away - since so many people don't like the realness of hypocrisy? Just some things to ponder on, I guess.

In India, Poverty Inspires People to Action

“In Redmond, you don’t see 7-year-olds begging on the street,” said Sean Blagsvedt (former Microsoft engineer).

This statement refers to the difference between the streets of India and the streets around Microsoft's headquarters in the US. A growing trend in India is that wealthy workers are seeing the poverty around them and are being moved to do something with technology to help these people.

Mr. Blagsvedt idea was to build a social networking site for poor street workers looking for employment. It seems that the rich complain about not having enough people to hire, and the poor complain about not having enough jobs. the problem was that there was no connection between the two. Mr. Blagsvedt answer? Technology!

The biggest problem was the fact that the poor don't have access to computers, and the rich don't want to trust just anyone they find online. So, the design of Babajob.com was to pay the people with computer access to set up profiles for good workers that they have found. Fairly ingenious. You can see the whole article here.

If you have ever read the Bible, especially the New Testament, you might have been struck by the idea that we are supposed to do something about poverty. I've always wondered why so few of us do that. Heck - I've wondered why I have a hard time doing anything. I think some of it has to do with the attitudes of the most visible poor: the corner beggars. I've gone and talked to a few of them, even offered to help them apply for jobs. They aren't interested in doing that. Now, I know that those people represent less than 5% of the actual poor out there. But they are the 5% that most of us ever get to deal with, so I am assuming that they are (unfortunately) influencing our national attitudes toward the poor. Why would we want to help those that just want a free hand out?

There has got to be a way to get something like this started here in the US. Some kind of site that links us needs with those willing to give. I am thinking mostly time here, and not money. I would love to go do something about poverty, if I could just find where to go on my free Saturday afternoons.

Modern Day Warm and Well Fed

Scripture Reference: James 2

Something hit me this morning. I tend to look at James 2:16 as being something I can only do to homeless and poor people around me:

"If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?"

However, the whole point of the passage is to put your faith into practice, and to not just to mouth worthless clichés to get away from someone else's sob story. It's not (just) about homeless people. So, with that in mind, I realized that there is a modern day equivalent to this verse:

"If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; I'll pray for your need," but does nothing to help be an answer to that prayer, what good is it?"

Some prayer requests - especially for those that require physical healing - are beyond our ability to do anything about. But what about those that we can do something about? What if someone is feeling lonely? What if they are struggling with self doubt? What if they are in need of anything that we have the ability to do something about?

James goes on to say "do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?" Useless? Ouch. But... maybe... possibly.... is that why we pray for things for other people, and never see those prayers answered? Is it because we are supposed to be the answers, and our faithful prayer without deeds is turning up useless?

Take the loneliness issue for an example. People usually don't come out and say "I'm lonely." They just start saying things like "I am not feeling very connected with any of the people around here." I've heard many people say this - and have even said it myself plenty of times. The typical reaction is "well, I'll pray for God to send some marvelous comrades your way, brother/sister." Several weeks go by, and the person is still feeling "disconnected." And the other person probably is still praying fruitless prayers, or has forgotten the whole issue by now. Hello! Pick up the phone and give the person a call? Is that so hard? I often wonder why so many people are so reluctant to become the answers to their own prayers.

Tired of Close-Minded Christians?

A common argument/excuse that I hear about why people don't want to go to church is that they don't want to be around close-minded or hypocritical people. They want to interact with open-minded people, but not Christians, because they are close-minded. Isn't that a close-minded statement though? It's like saying "I am open to anything that anyone has to say, except for this rather large group over here." That, in itself, seems like a close-minded contradictory statement. Kind of like the statement "there are NO absolutes."

More often than that, I frequently hear the hypocritical tag thrown around. Christians don't live what they believe, so we shouldn't listen to them - right? Well, right? Not quite. If your doctor smoked, would you ignore his advice about what is good for you? You could - but that would be dangerous for your health. We can gripe about hypocrisy all we want, but even though our doctor may not follow their own advice - it doesn't mean that they are clueless. They are probably telling us the right stuff. Somewhere along the line, the American culture has bought in to the lie that hypocrites are automatically wrong in everything they say, just because they are hypocritical. Of course, I could also go into how we are all hypocritical in some way, but that is another subject....

When people throw around the hypocrisy tag, what they are really saying is "I want to ignore what God is saying and blame it on his followers, even though by calling them hypocrites I am acknowledging that they are not doing what God would want them to, anyway."