I got a comment saying “Fuch (sic) you all, bloggers.”
The e-mail address was chrismatthews@msnbc.com
Obviously this was not from Chris Matthews.
As you know, I hate the respect respectable conservatives show to liberals so they can be “respectable.”
So it may surprise you that I wrote back, “I knew Chris Matthews when I was on Capitol Hill. He was our opponent, but we respected him and I do not appreciate your using his name this way.”
Naturally the note came back as undeliverable. Chris had nothing to do with it.
This was a reaction, not a thought-out response.
Am I a hypocrite?
#1 by Zandt on 07/25/2005 - 11:02 pm
Hi Bob,
No, you were not being hypocritical.
It it wise to respect your enemy, but that is not the same as faking something to gain approval.
#2 by H.S. on 07/26/2005 - 1:11 am
This reminded me of learning about the derivation of words and character traits:
hypocrite vs. sincere
Using another’s good definitional quotes from one of many sites (Goettsche):
To love people is a command of Jesus. God’s command is “love must be sincere.” (as in Romans 12 for instance)
I maintain that respect, common decency, caring is a type of love.
We can understand the text much better after we have looked at the words. The word “sincere” comes from the Latin words sine cera, which means “without wax.” The phrase comes from a practice where potters would hide the cracks in cheaply made pottery with wax in order to pass the pottery off as being worth more than it actually was. Quality products were often stamped with the words sine cera to indicate it had not been filled with wax which would later melt or age and crack. It would be similar to those products today that are stamped, “all natural” or “100% pure.” It is acceptable and good to love only in a way that is pure and genuine.
The Greek word translated “sincere” in most Bibles is the word Anupokritos (¢nupÒkritoj). The last part of the word is that word hypocrite. The prefix “an” means “without.” So the Greek word actually means, “without hypocrisy.” In classical Greek the word “hypocrite” meant someone who wore a mask in a play. Once again we have a demonstration/derivation that indicates that believers should love without a mask. The love should be real and not pretend. It should be without a hidden agenda.
So why is it this way?
It is because we are much better at claiming to love someone than we are at actually loving them. We all learned the fine art of pretending very early on.
We say positive things to a person in front of them but when we are away from them we speak critically.
We tell someone we will pray for them, but don’t actually do so.
We tell someone that we forgot to do something they asked us to do, but in truth, we just didn’t want to do it.
Ad nauseum.
Are you deceiving or not – that is the root of it.
So is it or is it not? I don’t believe that if your true motive was common decency and protecting him that could be hypocrisy.
#3 by Peter on 07/26/2005 - 11:36 pm
I loved those definitions from HS.
#4 by Bob on 07/28/2005 - 4:08 pm
Peter, I think HS is a smarty-pants myself, but don’t tell her I said so.