by onacruse 52 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
For the last 20 years of my association with the JWs, I was, more or less, a hypocrite. They taught things I didn't believe, but I went to the meetings and, by my presence there and by my "non-answers" I in essence supported something that I didn't believe.
It's a hard thing to say "I was a hypocrite."
I was.
Craig
Good Post.
We could all have been called hypocrites at some point or another in da truff. The willingness to shun or mark a person based on what others said and yet claim to be called true christians is the easiest to point out as the habits of a hypocrite.
I was a hypocrite when I was a member, for that and other things.
Goshawk
These days it largely depends on who Im dealing with. Some people, in my view, are so closed minded they deserve no concession. I deal with people as I percieve they deal with me. Tit for tat. I would never admit my own hypocrisy , now say, to a representative of an organization that I felt claimed to be the font of all truth, an organization that never admitted any possibility of its own error . No quarter asked or given. Why should I rationalize my own thinking with people that are so right they never analize or alter their own opinions?
I freely admit to being a hypocrite. It says me the effort of trying to prove that I am not. Teenagers have a radar for hypocrisy, and I avoid the endless arguments about whether I am or not by just admitting that I am.
When told that I am a hypcrite, my standard reply is, "Yes, I am a hypocrite. I have had years of practice and am very good at it."
goshawk:
The willingness to shun or mark a person based on what others said and yet claim to be called true christians is the easiest to point out as the habits of a hypocrite.
I'm suggesting that a more fundamental issue is at play: what WE think within OURselves, when we do what we do. If we are simply and solely "conforming to the group," then it may very well be nothing more than having succumbed to the "conditioning" of our cultic upbringing/environment. But if we knew, within ourselves, that what we were doing/saying/not-saying was incongruent, then isn't that the truest definition of hypocrisy?
RF:
These days it largely depends on who Im dealing with.
I'll take only your first sentence, as you may have a clearer view of what I'm driving at based on my comments to goshawk. I'm talking about personal integrity, self-honesty, willingness first to admit to oneself, and thence to others, that "I was wrong, I knew I was wrong, and I continued on anyway."
Craig
Skeptic, your comment raises an interesting question:
If a hypocrite admits he's a hypocrite, is he still a hypocrite?
Maybe, just liar?
Craig
Craig
Well as far as admitting to myself, I think this is one of my (few) saving graces. I have few illusions about myself and no "truth" of my "personal nature" that was pointed out to me by someone else could damage my psyche. I allready am convinced that I admit what I am, with all my faults.
Self deception isnt my game, I hope, though many do engage in it and the unspoken truth of themselves, put in their face for them to examine, can be a painful thing to behold.
I am a hypocrite and would honestly admit it to myself or other people, BUT I dont like other people telling me I'm a hypocrite, it doesnt feel good and usually I would end up biting them.
Brummie hypocritter class.
RF, you've obviously thought a lot about this, and I'd appreciate it if you might expand upon what you say:
Self deception isnt my game, I hope...
the unspoken truth of themselves
Do you wonder sometimes, as I do, that even as I go down this road of what I think is really open and honest discussion, that, somehow, I'm not still "hiding from myself?" Though (strictly speaking) this not in itself hypocrisy, is it perhaps a harbinger? Where is the break-point?
Craig
Doesn't imperfection cover all bases? Why let the left hand know what the right hand is doing?
Guest 77
