The Real Religious Hypocrites

If there's one thing most people, even unbelievers, know about Jesus it's that He was fiercely opposed to hypocrisy and hypocrites. He condemned the religious leaders of His day for little else. Jesus famously stated that prostitutes and other sinners would get into heaven before the pious Pharisees and Saducees precisely because they admitted their spiritual brokenness and need for a Saviour, something the sanctimonous rabbis wouldn't do.

Many people today embrace Jesus' anti-hypocrisy attitude, often using it just as He did--as a weapon to beat down the self-righteous. But I wonder if we've gone a little astray in our understanding of hypocrisy and our reaction to it.

Most of us think we know a hypocrite when we see one. It's the almost stereotypical figure of the pious churchgoer or preacher who thunders against other people's sins while wallowing up to his ears in his own. Fallen televangelists Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Baker are classic examples of this type of hypocrite. But there's another type of hypocrite that I think is far worse than the "ordinary" kind; a type that's just as numerous but not nearly as exposed and condemned. I call this type of hypocrite a "wolf-in-sheep" hypocrite, or a WISH.

And what, precisely, is a WISH? The name comes from Jesus' reference to false teachers as wolves in sheep's clothing, and that tells us what a wolf-in-sheep hypocrite is: a false teacher. Someone who claims to be a Christian but rejects the fundamental doctrines of the faith, even the Bible itself, and teaches others to do so, too. The best example of a WISH I know of is Bishop John Shelby Spong.

Spong is an Episcopal bishop who rejects so much of Christian teaching that you wonder why he bothers calling himself a Christian. But that's the m.o. of WISHes. They reject their faith yet demand that they still be viewed as believers. Their favorite weapon against those who dare to expose their spiritual treason is to accuse them of narrowmindedness and intolerance. Far more than God, the WISH worships modernity and insists that, to be relevant, the Church must change with the times, no matter how anti-Christian the times become. The spirit of the age, not the Holy Spirit, informs the WISH's religious beliefs.

Of course, the WISH rejects the authority of the Bible. He might vigorously deny that, and point to his use of Scripture in support of some "just" cause. But if you look closely at his use of the Bible, you'll find that the only verses he accepts as authoritative are those that agree with his personal views. All other verses he ignores or reinterprets to fit his own or the world's agenda.

WISHes aren't limited to Christianity. Other religions have them, too. Irshad Manji, author of the interesting book "The Trouble with Islam", is a Muslim WISH. In her book, Ms. Manji lobs criticism after criticism at her faith, finding Islam's teachings on women and homosexuality particularly objectionable. She rejects, of course, the divine inspiration and authority of the Koran yet, for reasons that never come clear, still calls herself a Muslim! Why?!

We can also ask John Shelby Spong and all the other Christian WISHes, why? If you don't believe the Bible, if you just can't accept certain Church doctrines, if you're not even sure there is a God, why do you persist in calling yourselves Christians ( or Muslims, Bhuddists, etc.)? Why don't you just do the only intellectually and spirtitually honest thing and leave the faith? Is it that you see yourselves as enlightened fifth columnists, working to bring progressive change to the faith? Or are you just cynical, playing at Christianity just to get along with your family, or co-workers, or friends?

Whatever the reason wolf-in-sheep hypocrites stay in the church (or mosque, or synagogue, or temple) believers need to be aware of them so they can beware of them. Their leaven is more destructive to Christianity--to any faith--than all the exploits of all the ordinary hypocrites combined. Believers must heed Jesus' advice: "Be wise as serpents and gentle as doves." Know what's going on in your congregations, and don't make this WISH.