Blue Like Jazz

I Am A Hypocrite

I know there are people who refuse to attend a church because of all the hypocrisy they find in it.

Let me warn you up front that you probably won't like my church because I'm one of the pastors, and I'm a hypocrite.

I I wish I could say I wasn't a hypocrite, but that would just make me a hypocrite and a liar.

Sometimes I judge people who are judgmental.

Sometimes I look at people who commit sins that I am not tempted by, and consider their sins as being more severe than my own.

Sometimes I ignore advice I give to other people.

Arrogance and pride and lust and selfishness have at different times in my life grown wild in the soil of my humanity.

In Red Letter Revolution, Tony Campolo says that we are all hypocrites and that our only choice is where we set the boundaries of our hypocrisy.

Socrates, as I have written elsewhere, was considered the wisest man alive by the Oracle of Delphi in large part because he was aware of how much he didn't know. The other 'wise people' his era were self deluded into believing their knowledge was all encompassing.

I think we are all hypocrites. What defines us is whether we are aware of it. And once we are aware of it, whether we try to reduce it.

CS Lewis in Reflections on the Psalms worries that rather than being 'too good' for bullies, or cruel and dishonest people, we are perhaps not good enough to minister to them.

My favorite part of Blue Like Jazz is when the 'pope' starts to repent to the 'sinners' for failing them.

You know why Jesus was able to attract the outcasts of society despite the fact that he wasn't compromising God's standards - in fact he was raising them?

I think it's because it was a genuine message from a completely genuine person.

We still have that genuine message, but often, my failings and flaws make it hard to actually see the good news.

My name is TC and I'm a hypocrite. I'm sorry for that. I'm working on it, and I think I'm getting better about it. If you can forgive me for it, I think I can help the Body of Christ as we seek to grow closer to God together.