The Webster’s dictionary defines the word, “hypocrisy” as “a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not.” Also, it defines the word “inconsistency” as “not compatible with another fact or claim.”
I don’t have to say much about the hypocrisy and the inconsistency in the lives of Christians today. In fact, it has ruined our witness for Christ many times in the public arena. But recently there were some news that went under the radar. It was not the “right-wing” camp that was found guilty of hypocrisy and inconsistency but from the people on the “left-wing.”
On March 24th-25th, in San Francisco (the mother capital of liberalism and open-mindedness) Acquire the Fire Conference came in to do a youth worship event. Ron Luce, who is the president and founder of Teen Mania Ministries sponsors the event. In this two day rally more than 25,000 Christian youth gathered together.
The thing that caught my attention was that the conference was welcomed not only by protesters but an official city denunciation of the event – what the… wait a minute… I thought San Francisco was all about being tolerant and open-minded about things (after all, in that city we have everything from pro-abortion to pro-homosexuality to pro-everything). But herein lies the irony (or shall I say the hypocrisy and inconsistency)… if San Francisco is so tolerant and open-minded about things, then why in the world do we have city officials condemning a gathering?
Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said “they’re loud, they’re obnoxious, they’re disgusting, and they should get out of San Francisco.” Hmmm… that does not sound very tolerant. Peter Cobb, an organizer with a group called, Not In Our Name, said, “There is a real intolerancy to homosexuality in a lot of these organizations.” Well, that is somewhat true and we, as Christians have to work on this. But to use the “intolerance” argument in this situation will make their cry for tolerance insincere and hypocritical at best.
Even the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution condemning the gathering by saying that the event will “negatively influence the politics of America’s most tolerant and progressive city.” Wow… I don’t know if you got the full force of that argument and logic. If San Francisco is really “America’s most tolerant and progressive city” then having a bunch of Christian youth gathering together to worship should be welcomed and “accepted”… no?
Am I missing something here? Maybe they should have been more blunt and said, “We are tolerant and accepting of everyone and everything EXCEPT Christians and anything that has to do with this Jesus!” Then their logic would have been consistent with their behavior. Hmmm… I am guessing this is the trap that so many people fall into. Whenever we are so consumed with an agenda, we don’t even see the hypocrisy and inconsistency of our own values and stance.
Maybe this is why as Christians we need to be more self-deprecating and look at the hypocrisy and inconsistency in our lives. Lord work on us first!
If you want to read the actual article it is found here:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/25/MNG6OHU6RR1.DTL
