A Real ‘Sincere’ Challenge For America
Charles Spurgeon once said: “Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite.”
Hypocrisy is a killer today, especially when it’s “talented” hypocrisy – because the influence of talented hypocrites leads so many people astray.
In the wake of Weinstein’s escapades, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Hollywood’s de facto governing body) said: “[T]he era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over … [we will] work to establish ethical standards of conduct that all academy members will be expected to exemplify.”
Try adding these “ethical standards” to the movies you produce, Hollywood. If you were sincere about sexual abuse, you’d change the movies you make, not simply the words you say.
The NFL is another example.
Take how it picks sides when it comes to the league’s player compliance policy. It wouldn’t allow Robert Griffin III to wear his, “No Jesus No Peace” T-shirt to a press conference in 2014. It refused Titans linebacker Avery Williamson’s plan to wear shoes to honor the victims of 9/11. It fined Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams for wearing “Find the Cure” in his eye black to promote breast cancer awareness. And the NFL reprimanded Steelers cornerback William Gray for wearing purple cleats to raise awareness about domestic violence.
These are all important issues today – including when the Dallas Cowboys tried wearing helmet decals to honor fallen police officers after the Dallas ambush attack – but the NFL denied all these expressions by players.
That would be OK with us (given that the NFL is a private business) except for the fact that when it came to anthem protests, the NFL refused to enforce its own policy.
Regardless of what you think about the protests, there is no denying the NFL chose sides here, hypocritically enforcing compliance on some while refusing to do so on others.
And fashion designers aren’t far behind football and Hollywood. Talented artists, like Sophie Theallet and others, refused to “humanize the Trump family” by designing a dress for the first lady, Melania. They were hailed as heroes by the mainstream media for refusing to use their creative talents to normalize a family that represented views contrary to their own.
Talented hypocrisy at its best.
The list goes on – even with the likes of former President George W. Bush and his recent comment about President Trump not “knowing what it means to be president.”
We remember hearing him speak at a conference in Dallas, Texas, the year after he left office. We were eager to hear his thoughts about President Obama’s first few months in office, yet when asked directly about it he said: “I refuse to criticize or critique a sitting president. It’s not good for the country.”
If he were being sincere, we’d agree with him wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, he was not. In his recent book, “The Last Republicans,” W. criticized President Trump while his dad, George H., called him a “blowhard.”
The issue is not whether these comments are true, but rather if the Bushes are sincere about what they say – or are they acting more like talented hypocrites? Not one time during Obama’s presidency did W. make a peep about the president, but, just like Hollywood, the NFL and fashion designers, he says one thing and acts another at certain times.
It’s time to be sincere in this country – to be consistent with what you say and how you live, to simply stand for what you believe and be true to it until the end. This is no more important than in the church – where the people of God are called to love without hypocrisy, as Romans 12:9 says:
“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.”
Regardless of what position you hold in life, the “very least person is of more value than the most talented hypocrite.” This is so true.
