by Kate Miller
Christians rarely if ever grasp the attention of national media for a good reason, and recently I heard a story about one of the supposed “leaders” in the Evangelical Christian faith that was, in my opinion, appalling. This man is the host of a program that offers advice to those who have moral dilemmas. A viewer wrote in to the show asking what to do about his wife that was deteriorating as a result of Alzheimer’s disease. The wife no longer recognized her husband and was becoming increasingly difficult to care for. The man confessed that he was having an active affair with another woman and wanted to know what he should do. The host of the program did not offer what I would consider to be “Christianly advice.” Instead, he told the man that he should divorce his wife and marry his mistress. He justified this statement by saying that because of her condition she was already dead, and as long as he made sure she was well cared for, he could live guilt free. He threw the vows of marriage out the window and encouraged a man to indulge in his selfish desires. When you consider what the Christian religion teaches, any person, believer or not, should be able to see how his advice was laden with hypocrisy.
Now I could sit here and get into all of the things that are wrong with the bit of advice that this man gave, but instead I would like to take a look at the bigger picture.
Why do Christians feel that we can pick and choose which parts of God’s teachings we will practice? Christians can actively condemn those that practice homosexuality or have abortions, but when it comes down to the more socially acceptable sins like selfishness and greed, the laws suddenly no longer apply.
I have witnessed firsthand how this type of hypocrisy can turn off a non-believer to the saving power of Jesus Christ. We are so busy pointing out the faults of others that we forget to look at our own lives. We must realize that it is not our place to cast the stones of judgment upon those who do not believe because when it comes down to it, we are no more perfect than those we condemn. Christians may not be able to see how imperfect they truly are, but if we take a moment to look at our lives, I am sure that we could all find an area where we do not practice what we preach. A Christian who does not live by the laws that God has created for us can become a stumbling block to those who observe our faith from the outside. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matt. 7:5). We must first correct our own faults before we point out those of another, and when we do rebuke those around us for their sin, we must do so with love and understanding.
