with L.W. Outlaw PhD
As a Christian, this is a very difficult article to write but as a psychologist some things just need to be said no matter the difficulty.
Unfortunately, most of us as Christians are hypocrites!
Back in the day when as a young preacher I was often invited to supply preach or preach a revival, I would often ask the congregation at the beginning of the sermon, “Do we have any hypocrites with us today?” It provided me personally with a little statistical information as well as a bit of humor and levity to introduce the sermon topic.
To my surprise, no 2 responses were ever the same. In one church the entire congregation might raise their hands while in another there might be no hands and still in others, there might be just a few “honest” souls to raise their hands while the rest of the hypocritical congregation laughed and giggled with glee.
It’s the same with alcohol, drugs, pornography and profanity; those as those that wouldn’t touch a drop of alcohol to drink, they know exactly what to use in cooking.
Those which wouldn’t touch cocaine or heroin don’t hesitate to condemn those of us which use cannabis in order to better control our neurological disorder of epilepsy, MS or Parkinson.
Those which would never watch an X-rated movie, don’t hesitate to stand in line for tickets to the annual boat show (oh, maybe a few but only a very few) and I assure you it’s not to see the boats. I’ve seen Baptist deacons stare and “goggle” at the beautiful “scadly clad” women in string bikinis as if there was no tomorrow and since they invited me (their pastor/preacher) they thought God wasn’t watching. The very first time this happened, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Of course, we’re all tempted but I was quite surprised that my deacons would be so bolden and even dare to put me; their pastor in such a compromising situation.
Please don’t misunderstand. I’m a sinner and there are certain aspects of the dark spiritual side which seem more tempting/appealing than others; certain food for one.
Diet Coke is another! Strangely enough, according to the AMA, is one of the most addictive products ever developed by Coca Cola which ultimately led to the development of Coke Zero (which for whatever reason doesn’t seem to have the same addictive qualities).
So we have addiction covered, but where does the hypocrisy come in?
Quite simple actually!
No one wants to admit they have an addiction; (no matter the nature of the addiction). This results in lying and cover-up; further, many people will live within the confines of the lie and the cover-up thinking they’re safe for years or even decades only to ultimately be found out. As the old saying goes:“A lie is only as good as the one telling/living the lie” In other words, if you believe their story, chances are you’ve got a pretty big tale to tale yourself……you know what they say, “It takes one to know one”.
In my next article we will be discussing what many psychologist are calling close cousins to Hypocrisy and addiction; OCD and OCS.
© 2022 Dr. Lee W. Outlaw III
On the Road to a Sound Mind with L.W.Outlaw PhD 