This is Why Christians Tend to Be Hypocritical

They could not help it, really.

Even Christians acknowledge that the church is filled with hypocrites. Many feel sad about the current situation and want positive changes. They try many methods. More Bible study, more prayer meetings, better worship songs, more frequent leadership training, or properly written church bylaws.

None of these will fix the problem because the root of the problem lies in the core teaching of Christianity.

Many of the lottery winners go bankrupt soon after getting millions of dollars deposited into their bank accounts. One source says 70% of lottery winners lose or spend all of the money in five years or less. This seems counterintuitive. People who purchase lottery tickets usually plan to be rich for the rest of their lives once they win the top prize. Spending it all in a couple of years and becoming broke again would not be any lottery winner’s goal.

Then why does it happen anyway? Because the whole rationale that supports or encourages a person to buy lottery tickets works against them keeping that money. The expected return of buying lottery tickets is negative. People who are knowledgeable about finance or investment are too smart to be fooled by the dollar amount of the top prize. Those who are fooled usually don’t have proper money sense, which makes them poor managers of a large sum of money.

When people get lucky the first time, would they try again? Absolutely! Hence lottery winners cannot help themselves but spend more money on buying more lottery tickets. What happens when you buy a lot of stuff with negative expected returns? You go broke!

It’s the same with Christianity. From the way this religion is set up, churches are bound to produce hypocritical and sanctimonious Christians.

The Root Problems of Christianity That Make Christians Hypocritical

1. Motivation in Conversion

What is the core message of Christianity? Most would answer: John 3:16.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Sounds lovely, right? Who doesn’t want everlasting life? If all you need to do is to believe in Jesus, why not?

Of course, there is the “sin” part. We are all sinners, blah blah. That’s why we need salvation, so we don’t go to hell after we die.

In other words, many people are drawn to Christianity because it sounds like a good transaction. I believe → I get eternal life. To add “a little” motivation to believe, if I don’t believe → I suffer in hell or get eternally separated from God. It’s pure pragmaticism, a profitable transaction.

Just as people who buy lottery tickets usually are poor managers of money, people who are converted to Christianity because of this pragmaticism won’t be very interested in living a godly life afterwards. Even if they are motivated to live a God-pleasing life, they know that even if they mess up, Jesus is there to forgive their “occasional” stumble.

That’s why Christians can talk about purity all they want, but at the end of the day, the percentage of new babies born out of wedlock in Bible-belt states in the U.S. remains at the same rate or even higher than in other less religious states.

2. Afraid to Back Out

Even if Christians are tired of being hypocritical, of confessing one thing while acting out the other way, they would hesitate to ditch their belief. The threat of hell looms large.

But they are not going to admit it. They will do everything they can to hold on to the narrative they tell to themselves: “I believe in Jesus out of my free choice, because He loves me, not because He will send me to hell if I don’t believe.”

So they continue to go to church, but their poor attitudes to the waiters and waitresses and the meager tips they leave at the restaurant after Sunday service expose it all still.

They nod their heads sitting in the pews when their pastor condemns homosexuality in the pulpit, but after going home, they watch gay porn.

It’s not entirely the fault of Christians. The system of Christianity sets them up this way.

If a parent tells their child to obey them, or they will beat the child up, and then the child obeys, is that obedience out of free choice? If a young man asks a lovely young woman to marry him, but also tells her if she is not willing to marry him, he would kill her and hurt her family, and then she complies, is that true love?

We don’t need to graduate from college to understand that action performed under threat cannot be a free choice, but compliance.

We can’t expect people to behave consistently when they feel compelled to comply.

Some Christians find the strength to be honest with themselves and leave the twisted system. They are less likely to be hypocritical, but they are out of the church. The ones who have the double life problem are still in the church.

Solution

Simple. The church can tell people that Jesus wants to build a relationship with them but give them no promises. If people truly love Jesus, they don’t need the “extra incentive” of eternal life, do they?

Or the church can stop telling people they will go to hell if they reject God. It’s not really a free choice if you add a threat of hell in the offer, is it?

But no church will do that. Why? Because only very few parishioners will remain, and there won’t be enough donations to keep the church running. The church has to look after itself, you know.

So the church will continue to lure people in using lofty promises and keep people from exiting the backdoor using threats of divine wrath.

Sadly, we will keep seeing hypocritical Christians in the foreseeable future.

Further reading

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