Hypocrisy is one of the most common criticisms that nonreligious people make about religious people. It is also a criticism that religious people in one sect make about other religious people. But, not surprisingly, it is a term that religious people rarely apply to themselves or to anyone who shares their religious  beliefs. This is clear evidence of the need to detoxify from religion’s influence because of the way it interferes with rational thinking. It is also evidence of the veil that God has put over unbelievers to keep them from seeing the truth until they are ready to be finished with religion.

We see the effect of this veil in the Pharisees and scribes whom Jesus accused of religious malpractice and often called “hypocrites.” Just as the scribes and Pharisees didn’t accept Jesus’ criticisms, Jews and Christians in all generations have failed to see the hypocrisy of their religions. Like the scribes and Pharisees, Jews and Christians are drunk on the strong drink of religion which is symbolically represented as wine. Having confidence of their righteousness based on the teachings of their religious leaders and their faithfulness to follow religious laws, they cannot imagine, much less see, that Jesus’ complaints could possibly apply to them. Thus it can be said that all religious people of every age are Pharisees.

Perhaps it is the handicap of being a Pharisee intoxicated with religious knowledge and self-righteousness that prevents religious people from understanding that the conventional meaning of hypocrisy is not the same as the Biblical meaning. Having a strong tendency to interpret the Bible for its historical content without appreciation that all scripture useful for their personal training in righteousness, they, like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, do not take correction easily. Lack of readiness to accept that they might need correction is a clear indicator of Pharisaical hypocrisy. And, as was true for Jesus, anyone who presumes to correct a Pharisee is sure to suffer persecution and rejection.

In the Bible there is a sense in which the conventional interpretation of a hypocrite being a person who says one thing and then does another is accurate. But in the Greek word Hupokrites that is translated as “hypocrite,” we find a slightly different meaning of a hypocrite: play actor and pretender. While the conventional understanding of hypocrite and hypocrisy can be accurately applied to Jews and Christians, the play actor/pretender definition better communicates God’s use of the word.

The reason that Hupokrites translates better as play actor/pretender relates to the Third Commandment where God warned about “profaning ” and “polluting” his name (i.e. character) in the eyes of the world.

STUDY TIP: See Third Commandment.

When Jews and Christians associate themselves with God, who is an invisible spirit, while publicly activating their fleshly bodies in all kinds of visible, observable religious activities that are contrary to God’s commands, they are in effect play acting what they think God is like and  pretending to worship him. Here is a short list of ways that they are hypocrites:

As religious people transition out of religion, it becomes easier for them to identify personal hypocrisy and call it out for what it is in themselves and in others. In fact, the heightened ability to see hypocrisy is one of the reasons why people break with religion. This forum is a place for anyone, religious or nonreligious, to report personal observations of hypocrisy.

See this link to read and comment on the Hypocrisy forum.

Notes to contributors to this forum:

Since hypocrisy is not a term that is not often discussed, some review might be useful to some people. See the link below for writings about the topic.