Today I want to talk about hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy is one of the most misused charges that people throw at each other in our public life.

We accuse our public figures and even just private individuals of being hypocrites all the time.

And we do it, I think, in a really wrong-headed way.

I don't think we're using that word right.

You know, I do not think that word means what you think it means.

The Greek root of this word, who hypocrites, literally means actor, play actor.

Somebody who's pretending to be something that he's not.

And I wanted to keep that in mind as I think about some of the ways that we use this word hypocrisy.

When a politician who's a social conservative gets caught sleeping around,

for example, we accuse that person of hypocrisy.

Or when a person who just, you know, maybe has very high moral standards,

when it turns out that maybe that person drinks a little more than he says he does or then he should.

We accuse that person of hypocrisy.

And you see this all the time.

You see it in the news, right?

This of that politician.

This of that pastor was caught out right doing this thing.

And that means that he doesn't actually mean all the things that he says.

All the high, lofty, noble ideals that he aspires to.

Those are all false.

That's all hypocritical.

...