Unethical Hypocrisy: Religion

For this discussion, I will be focusing my attention on a few hypocritical issues within Christianity. That is not to say that there are not hypocrisies to be found in other major religions. However, since Christianity is the predominant faith in the United States, where I happen to live, it is simply the easiest for me to draw from and, I would suspect, the easiest for readers to understand.

Obviously, the low hanging fruit of Christian hypocrisy is the church's stance on homosexuality. I will not go into detail about why religious hypocrisy on homosexuality is bad for society, since it has been discussed more fully elsewhere by many people who are more skilled or knowledgeable than myself. I will merely reiterate that if you truly believe homosexuality to be an abomination as presented in Leviticus, then I challenge you to fulfill all the other 600+ commandments laid out in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. In other words, do not get tattoos, do not perform any work on the Sabbath (whether you choose to accept the Sabbath as Saturday or Sunday is up to you), do not eat certain foods (such as shrimp, lobster, oysters, pork, or any foods which combine meat and dairy products), do not wear clothing of multiple fabric types, and do not sit on a chair or sleep in a bed that has been used by a menstruating woman!

Unethical Hypocrisy: Politics

As I mentioned in the introduction to this series of discussions, hypocrisy is a scourge on our society because it withers away our faith in our most vital public and private social institutions. In order to function in a way which serves the needs of the general public, politics relies on all individuals involved being committed to the causes which they claimed to support during their election processes. When elected officials choose to take actions which run contrary to their previously stated goals it leaves their voting constituents with feelings of powerlessness, anger, and regret. Furthermore, acts of political hypocrisy can have a damaging effect on society, and the world at large, since hypocrisy tends to favor the status quo. And it is exactly the status quo which the electorate seeks to challenge each time they venture to the polls.

For at least as long as I have been alive, Republicans have claimed to hold control over the issue of "family values" in the US. Conservatives have lauded their support for Christianity, the sanctity of marriage, and the pro-life agenda among their many claims that they are pro-family. However, it could be effectively argued that Republican support of large corporations and unregulated free market Capitalism seems to run counter to their alleged support of family values. As an example, prior to the government establishing strict labor laws it was not uncommon for workers in corporate factories to work twelve hour shifts which left very little time for parents to spend with their families. If Conservatives had their way in deregulating businesses, it would not be unexpected to one day see a return to the twelve hour work day. Already, corporations tacitly expect employees to work 50-60 hour work weeks (thanks largely to employee downsizing) despite being salaried for only 40 hours per week.

Unethical Hypocrisy: Introduction

Welcome to the new update of my site. While I have been writing since my last regular posting, I haven't gotten around to publishing to the blog. I wanted to give the site an updated look, and get back into the swing of regular writing and posting, so I thought I would kick things off with a topic that is a significant irritant to me, hypocrisy.

Last spring, while taking a course in Ethics, I chose to write a paper debating whether or not hypocrisy could be seen as ethical or unethical. I came firmly down on the side that hypocrisy is always unethical in every situation. However, while writing the paper I was constrained by length limitations and was, therefore, unable to elaborate on many areas which I thought would help drive my point forward. It is now my intention to flesh out those arguments in a more complete (though perhaps less formal) fashion over the next few weeks.

To begin the discussion, I am posting the full text of my Ethics paper (with parenthetical citations) from last spring. I hope you will find it interesting, as I plan to go deeper into the nature of hypocrisy as related to politics, religion, and personal relationships. Please feel free to leave comments, and I may try to address any intellectual arguments presented in the future updates.

I hope you enjoy this short series. I will get back to my usual social blogging once school starts back up on August 16th.