taking aim at hypocrisy hunting
Firmly entrenched in my list of "women I take seriously" is the wonderfully sarcastic conservative beauty queen Ann Coulter. The other women on the list are my mom, Nancy Pearcey, Peggy Noonan, Elisabeth Elliot and Margaret Thatcher. It's kind of a short list. Of course, I'm kind of a chauvinist- a good natured one though.
Ms. Coulter's column this week entitled Lie Down With Strippers, Wake Up With Pleas struck the nail so squarely on the head that it may have created an harmonic vibration reverberating through the universe that is sure to sow discord in hearts of godless liberals (political and theological). She makes this obvious, yet often overlooked, observation:
The liberal charge of "hypocrisy" has so permeated the public consciousness that no one is willing to condemn any behavior anymore, no matter how seedy. The unstated rule is: If you've done it, you can't ever criticize it — a standard that would seem to repudiate the good works of the Rev. Franklin Graham, Malcolm X, Whittaker Chambers and St. Paul, among others.
I so often hear the lame excuse from people who are either nominal Christians that won't attend church or resistant non-Christians who remain repellent of the Gospel because "there are so many hypocrites." Such responses reveal the Arminian thinking so etched into a mind yet transformed by the doctrines of grace. It denies the total depravity of all men, and overlooks the necessity of the atonement. If men could, by power of their own desire, act perfectly and never sin, then Christ's death on the cross was an unnecessary tragedy. Of course, hypocrisy is just an illogical excuse for people to justify their own sin of unbelief and hatred of that which is good. Coulter essentially makes this point when she says,
But we're all rotten sinners, incapable of redemption on our own. The liberal answer to sin is to say: I can never pay this back, so my argument will be I didn't do anything wrong.
It shoud be pointed out to hypocrite indicators our call is to worship Christ not each other. And that may be the crux of the issue. Perhaps it is because the quivering gelatinous mass of humanism that envelopes much of evangelical Christianity instructs by default people to worship men(especially themselves) and not Christ. Choreographed lights, trivial, overproduced music, and advertised Starbucks coffee cry out- "you are who is important, come here to be served by God and his people!" "You are so great, we just want you on our team." A man centered, Christ diminishing gospel oozes forth fuzzily from the pulpit and a bunch of religous navel gazers pat each other on the back. Pagans and moral relativists look on from a distance in amazed indignance, thinking "I might as well just go to a Rolling Stones concert... at least there I can get some good weed." (potential outreach coming to an emergent church near you)
The problem, as always, is exceedingly poor theology. We are to gather in fellowship to worship Christ, and precisely because we are hypocritical sinners. Yet, so many people are enslaved to a mindset that looks to sanctification prior to conversion. Or looks to perfection prior to sanctification. Or, in their deluded, self-constructed reality have rationalized how they are in fact "a pretty good person" and think the church needs to make itself more holy before it is worthy of their presence. Of course, the real travesty is when the means by which a hard hearted person rejects Christ is the observation of unregulated pride present in those who believe they are saving themselves.
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