Today I have been wracking my brain to find an example of how I am hypocritical. I even asked Mike and being the loving (and smart) partner that he is, he, too, couldn’t come up with an example. But not knowing HOW I am hypocritical is hypocritical in and of itself.
Hypocrisy is something that I detest and I try extremely hard not to be hypocritical. I would rather be honest and just admit that in our lives there are places where we fail at self-awareness.
Hypocrisy was one aspect of the 2016 U.S. presidential elections that drove me insane with rage. I remember our dear friend, Josh, saying “2016 is the year that will be known as the most hypocritical year in the U.S.”.
I could not believe all those Christians voting for a man who was extremely unethical, immoral, and blatantly so. I could not believe that there were women who voted for this man who openly talked about grabbing women by their p------. I could not believe that there were poor people who voted for this billionaire who was handed his empire on a silver platter and squandered it. I could not believe there were college graduates who voted for this man who ran a bogus university and made fun of people with disabilities, veterans, and used words like “bigly” and ignored science.
It was a year of hypocrisy. The last four years were years of hypocrisy, but now the U.S. has Pres. Biden and what is one of the first things that he does….
After having his election questioned with people breaking into the Capitol on the grounds of stopping the Congressional vote to approve his win of the presidency, he…Pres. Biden…is still acknowledging Juan Guaido as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. Guaido, who has not ever won the Venezuelan presidential elections. Pres. Biden refused to acknowledge the Venezuelan elections because of “irregularities"… sound familiar? If you had listened to Former Pres. Trump rant about U.S. Democrats, it would sound very familiar.
Hypocrisy. We learned on Real Time with Bill Mahr that the woman who was shot and killed in the assault on the Capitol was an Air Force veteran, Ashli Babbit, from San Diego, CA. We learned that living in California, one of the most progressive states in the U.S., she had to borrow from a lending firm at 169% interest in order to purchase her family’s small business - a pool supply company. How can such a lending firm operate within the laws of one of the most progressive states? Hypocrisy.
Here in Nicaragua closer to our home, the opposition to this present Sandinista government consists of the local hierarchy of the Catholic Church, many intellectuals, former Sandinistas who fought against the U.S.-backed dictatorships of the Somoza family, the insurrectionists of the Contra War in the 1980s, as well as others. The Catholic Church leaders called for arms in 2018…they were even taped as saying they would work with homosexuals, drug traffickers, and abortionists to overthrow this government. Hypocrisy.
The intellectuals thought they were the only ones capable of running a country like Nicaragua, despite the fact that the Sandinistas have tremendously improved the nation's infrastructure, education, health care in the country, and have lifted so many out of poverty. The intellectuals think they are the only ones who understand “democracy” even though the poor who vote have differed greatly with them, by voting the Sandinistas into office by more than a majority in each election. Hypocrisy.
And in 2018 many of the disillusioned Sandinista founders and fighters went to the U.S. Congress to ask for support for their own attempt at a coup here. The highest form of hypocrisy.
Jesus said, “Why, then, do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye? How dare you say to your brother, ‘Please, let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when you have a log in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matt 7:3-5)
We need to look at ourselves, our own societies, our own nations, our own biases and eliminate them BEFORE we going poking around in someone else’s life, society, and nation.
We must be honest…and clear sighted…that is the path forward.
-Kathleen
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