Would you be willing to admit it if you've been a hypocrite? (page 3)

cat1759

Born and bred a wanker jws. I was never a hypocrite as I believed in the only thing I knew in my own reality. Right or wrong it was all I knew.

I tried to be a hypocrite by going back to the hall a couple years after the fact and I would get sick and have to leave. Finally leaving for the last time because the Sunday talk was about spanking your children which is against the law. That was a turning point of no return.

My biggest fault is seeing reality in black and white and not being able to see color. We all try to fit into our own reality. It is when we try to fit in another's reality that we become disoriented, not necessarily a hypocrite.

Cathy

willyloman

Onacruse:

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?"

You're not hiding from yourself anymore than is the addict on route to sobriety who is in a halfway house getting acclimated to a new way of viewing the universe, before he goes out and fully functions in a society of which he's been no part. Don't beat yourself up, dude. That's what this place is, a halfway house.

maxwell

Yes, I would. But it would be hard to do so if someone told me as an insult. It would be not be as hard if someone calmly and logically pointed out the hypocritical element. I was hypocritical in my last few days as a witness as I played the role. I was hypocritical a few years before that when I was at a "low point spritually" ( I was planning on leaving and living it up, even though I still believed the religion). I think many of us have some views and actions that are somewhat hypocritical. Seems to me that almost any view that a person holds to be absolute can make that a person a potential hypocrite in some form or another.

teenyuck

Yes, no one is perfect and to expect that we won't make statements/rules that we then won't violate, is to expect the impossible.

I am sure I have done it. Just not here.

BluesBrother

I was hypocrite for a while. When I had realised that I no longer believed the WT ~~massage~~ message (Freudian slip) but I felt that I could not walk away without too many awkward questions being raised about my motives. So I let it run down over a while, months, then stopped .

During that time I would conduct the Watchtower study and fulfil assignments, sometimes wondering how they could believe all this, but I still did it. It is amazing what a lifetime of training and practice can do. Like the blades of a fan that keep turning after the power is turned off, so you can keep taking the same meetings, using the same phrases without giving it any real thought . Even now it would be easy to slip into the Witness mode if I got into conversation with one who actually wanted to talk about the faith . I trust that I would not do it though

I am shamed that I allowed the pressures to turn me into a hypocrite. I should have resigned eldership on the spot

run dont walk

I think we all were at one time, but with family sometimes it's so hard to get out and away from it.

hillary_step

Onacruse,

We all have the capability to behave like hypocrites. We also may, as you mention, find yourself caught in situations where it is often impossible to balance our personal ethics with our public persona, like our WTS lives, and find ourselves behaving, sometimes for years, in a way that we find too easy to condemn others for ( King David / Nathan / Batsheba - a classic scenario ) . This is part of the cognitive dissonance issue that anybody caught within a high control group, secular or religious, has to battle and the battle is certainly not won in the short term.

On a personal level, of course we all fall into hypocrisy on occasion. It is our reaction once our hypocrisy is exposed that shows the true merit of character. We have a choice, deny it, blame others, blame situations, or accept it, apologize and grow. When my hypocrisy is bought to my attention, I have no problem admitting it and apologizing for it. This also goes for any opinion or viewpoint that I might express, prove me wrong, and the next thing you will receive is an admission of error and an apology. After all, who the Hell am I to think that either myself, or my opinions on anything make much difference to anyone anyway!

Best regards - HS

Would you be willing to admit it if you've been a hypocrite?

donkey

m0nk3y

teejay