In our home we subscribe to Australian Geographic (AG) magazine.  AG was founded by iconic Aussie, Dick Smith.  It generally has some very informative articles on Australian wildlife.  I’m currently reading issue number 172, which has an article entitled, The Million Dollar Reptile, highlighting the commercial value of crocodiles.  AG also regularly features articles on popular regional tourist destinations.  The current issue has one on ecotourism in WA’s Margaret River region.

AG magazine takes a deliberate activist position in fighting 'climate change'.  Fair enough – who of us is not concerned about the way we treat or mistreat planet earth?  This latest issue, predictably, talks about “rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuels” and “reducing the amount of meat people consume”.  But that raises a big question for me.  This magazine, which outspokenly fights for the ecology of our planet, also actively promotes the use of fossil fuel.  It does that through numerous tourism and expedition advertisements.  In the latest issue I counted 17 such advertisements – everything from a flight over Antarctica to exploring the Kimberleys.  Presumably you can purchase “carbon offsets” to balance the ecological footprint of your fuel guzzling flights..!  So my question is: Is it not hypocrisy to call for transitioning away from fossil fuels while encouraging people to go on expeditions that use huge amounts of the same fossil fuel?

The dictionary defines hypocrisy as behaviour that contradicts what one claims to believe.  And AG does not have a monopoly on that.  Okay, the truth can hurt... but I would dare to say that we’re all pretty good at hypocrisy?  No?  Well, think of the Dad who gives his young son a lecture about lying and how terrible that is.  Three hours later he’s watching the football and the phone rings.  He says to his wife, “If that’s Bill, tell him I’m busy!”  Of course, if we challenged him he would argue that he was busy… busy watching football.  Or there’s the mother and pre-school son in the shopping centre.  I was walking behind them when the lad swore at his mother.  She replied, “Don’t you dare let me hear you ‘blankety-blank’ swearing!”  Hypocrisy comes easy to us.

In our society it’s often the church that gets nailed for hypocrisy.  I wish I had $100 for every time I’ve heard opposition to the church based on the claim that the church is full of hypocrites.  I’ve stopped replying with the words, “Come and join us, there’s room for one more!”  It’s probably more helpful to point out that Christians don’t claim to be perfect, just forgiven.  However the real issue is that such people don’t see their own failures to live up to their stated beliefs.  The Apostle Paul points out, in Romans 2 that we often judge the behaviour of others while, in some other form, doing the same thing ourselves.  That man who claimed the church is full of hypocrites is also critical of folk living on welfare.  He believes most Centerlinkers are ripping off the government – but he’s just bought a second-hand car and has convinced the seller to make out the invoice for $4000 less than what was actually paid – so that he’ll save some stamp-duty when he transfers the registration.  The seller willingly obliges because he made the same request himself for the car he just bought.  So who is ripping off the government?

Jesus confirmed the unacceptability of hypocrisy.  He challenged those who see the speck in their brother’s eye but don’t see the plank in their own eye.  And then he uses that loaded word: “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.”  It was especially the Pharisees in Jesus’ day who were labelled as hypocrites by our Lord.  They were folk who were quick to judge others and tied many legalistic burdens on people; meanwhile their own behaviour left a lot to be desired.

So what’s the solution?  For starters we should own up that all too often our lifestyle does not match what we profess to believe.  Confession is good for the soul and we need to bring our sin of hypocrisy to Jesus.  Amongst the sins that He died for on the cross is also the sin of hypocrisy.  However we must do more.  We need to ask Him to guide us by His Word and Spirit so that we might be people of integrity... people whose walk matches their talk.

[Thi Blog was written as a meditation for my radio program Songs of Faith on radio 2MaxFM.  You can tune into the program on your smart phone via the "Community Radio Plus" App and then search for 2MaxFM.  The program airs on Sunday evenings after the 8pm news.]

John Westendorp