There is often a great disconnect between what people say and what they do. There is a lot of doublespeak, where people say one thing and then do another. People go for politically correct expressions and terminologies, whereby they dissimulate their true meanings and intentions. Militant extremists call on their god of peace and then wage wars on the weak and defenseless. Political leaders proclaim and extol service to the community and then rob the same community of their shared resources. Religious leaders preach about love and then prey on the unsuspecting and the innocent.
There is something about the rarefied air in the heights of power and leadership that warps the mind. People drunk with the power of the gun begin believing that they hold the power of life and death over everyone else. People in the pinnacles of power in government begin believing they are above and beyond the law. People at the peak of church hierarchies begin believing they are exempt from keeping the commandments and heeding the demands of doing good.
It seems to me that the answer to this anomaly is pretty simple: let the last be first and the first be last; let him who would be he leader be the servant of all; let him who exults himself be humbled and he who humbles himself be exulted. Christ and His followers have been teaching these through the centuries. In many instances, they have inspired many to experience integrity and wholeness in their lives. But even among those followers there have been those who engage in doublespeak, saying one thing and doing another. Christ had one harsh word for them: “Hypocrites!”
Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Psalm 96
Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.
You do not enter yourselves,
nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You traverse sea and land to make one convert,
and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna
twice as much as yourselves.”
Matthew 23:13–15