A Christian Hypocrite

Chris "Ali Baba" Thiefe wrote an interesting article entitled "A Christian Hypocrite." Impressed by his brutal honesty I responded to his article. I am African American, a Pastor, a quasi-realist, and a male-man-redundancy intended; trust me, it’s an iconoclastic insight. One of Thiefe's more interesting statements was that Christians commonly ignore too many of Christ teachings. He wrote, "Believers are supposed to hate their parents when they follow Jesus ("If any man come to me, and not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sister, yet, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26)). Well, considering that Christians do not abandon their families but usually attempt to brainwash them they are all guilty of not following this verse. "It’s symbolic," yeah, I know your lame ass defense to this one already."

One do not pretend by this discourse to fully understand nor attempt to explain Jesus meaning in Luke 14:26, but to express one's finite insights to test the validity of one's argument and attempt to ascertain the truth. Jesus statement is definitely not symbolic. In the context of Luke 14:26, the English letters "H A T E" was transliterated from the Greek letters "miseo" (pronounced (mis-eo′-o)). Perhaps more accurately transliterated into the phrase "to love less"? Hence, "If any man come to me and does not [love less] his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sister, yet, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." In light of other statements Jesus made, namely in John 14:6 "Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me"’ (NIV).

While the snarky tone of his treatise makes him appear mean-spirited and resentful, Thief wrote with such eloquence that any reasonable Christian would be remised and dishonest to admit otherwise. One would like to dispute his snide claims about Christians being hypocrites but his assertions appear true to some extent. As a pastor, one is consistently aware of the humanness of Christians. We are fraught with human weaknesses like everybody else. One is uncertain, whether Mr. Thiefe’s antipathy is due to a previous negative experience, or if it is without a rational cause-and-effect. Nonetheless, too many of us (Christians) practice hypocrisy to some degree, if not to the highest. Too many of us are willfully ignorant of the Scriptures and often fall short of practicing what we preach.

Church leaders, not excluding yours truly, fail to temper their doctrines and ideologies with love, tolerance, and compassion for their fellows of humanity. Perhaps this practice is what Mr. Thiefe observed as "two-faced idealism" and "selective morality." It may be worthwhile for one to insist that Christian friends and colleagues read and seriously study Mr. Thiefe’s treatise-diatribe may be a more accurate description. His indictments might serve to motivate the faithful to begin an objective introspection of the conduct of priggish Church leaders, and help the Church get our collective act together and become kinder and gentler.

Perhaps, the insight or truth Jesus meant for one to ascertain from the passage in Luke 14:26 (CF. John 14:6), is that if anyone is going to become a pupil of life, learning to know the Truth, committed to discovering the Way, and to know Life in its fullness, one must love these things first and foremost above all else. For only then, might one learn and live in the light of truth and moral honesty. The point is that we give our best efforts to the things we love foremost. To be Jesus disciple or student, one must love Jesus most of all.

If Truth Be Told
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