Hypocrisy is the acid that erodes both authority and credibility. As human beings we don’t take advice well. There are always qualifiers that we put in place before listening to or taking advice from others. There are many in the world in need of wise council and there are equally many willing to distribute this council but we are hesitant to disclose our problems and listen to advice. We are not likely to sit down and discuss our marriage problems with, say, a priest who has never been married. Nor am I about to take child rearing advice from a middle school student. I’m not saying that this is the way it should be, just the way we are. The reason may be sound or, perhaps it is because we want the “counselor” to have an assailable record, that way we can have reason to disregard their advice after we have heard it. When it comes down to it good advice is good advice no matter the source, right? So why don’t I listen to a greedy swindler when he tells me to give more to the church. Why am I offended by the adulterer that tells me to keep my mind from impure thoughts, or by the pastor who preaches humility while pandering to the social elite?
If we lose our moral authority how can we distinguish between good and bad? How can we lead others away from sins that we embrace? I am puzzled by what is happening today in Iraq, where good men have been abandoned in a terrifying place and have succumbed to the forces of appalling corruption. How can we lead a nation to freedom, liberty and justice when we have embraced wretchedness, deceit and violence?
God save us from ourselves.
2 comments:
"Do as I say, not as I do."
I think good advice rings true whatever the source. It is only as you say when we're trying to find an excuse to avoid carrying out the advice that we check the giver's credentials.
When it comes to the US, I haven't seen much to emulate there for ages.
So this is where you live. Nice view.
Pity about the neighbours.
On the note of bio-fuel (I know I missed the boat on this topic, but btter late than never (as an ex-girlfriend once said, and Boy, was she right)) did you know that during WWII (or 'The Emergency" as it was referred to in neutral Ireland, showing our great knack at the understatement) 30% of the annual potatoe harvest (which may not sound like an awful lot, but when you consider the size of the potatoe harvest at the time, you were probably talking about enough potatoes to throw at all those Chinese who are standing hand-in-hand in a chain around the world) was turned into bio-diesel as oil was obviously pretty hard to come by at the time (of course you didn't, how the hell could you. Why would you even care!). Obviously as soon as the war ended we rolled up our national sleeve and started injecting the stuff straight into the national vein. Just goes to show, we really aren't as clever these days as we like to think.
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