How serious is religious hypocrisy and scandal to the collective faith of the people? Do these scandals hurt your faith? Should those who preach intolerance be held to greater public ridicule when they get caught doing what they condemn others for?
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
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Yeah first one. Okay first I'm going to answer the question here and then the questions that are on edline. I think that religious hypocrisy and scandal could hurt the people's faith but not necessarily. I think if the person was 1) a huge big impact on why you follow the religion and if you are deeply into the religion you might be affected. Other people, like Catholics, have faced scandal but there is still a large or same number of people because I think the point is the message that that church gives out. Would it hurt my faith if someone did that? I don't think so because for me personally I tend to stick to either the message itself or just try to feel what I think is right.I don't think people who do that should be condemned because the person themselves did not like it when he/she was doing it to them. I also don't see why any person should judge though because you never know what you might do in certain situations. You say no but then when it happens suddenly you're changing your mind. Also if that person is doing it (preaching intolerance) while they themselves is doing that you can only pity them and feel bad; but I think people will do certain things just cause everyone/most/some say it not because they themselves truly wouldn't. I guess a person could call it karma but I think that's sad cause in the end what was the point; suddenly they get caught and Then decide to the right thing? It just doesn't make sense to me. I think what we can learn from these is that you can never be sure of what you see and don't judge.
ReplyDeleteI think even if you are cheating or something along those lines it is still wrong. It does not matter if you get caught or not either. These people must be seriously corrupt because what would force aperson to do such a thing as preach the goodness and love and chastity of the Church and then go and Tarnish it with their bad reputation and the lies they tell to cover up their disgracefulness. I think that all people who are caught doing such a natsy deed should be prosecuted all the same. Leaders themselves make it harder to continue on, if they just lay low under the radar it would not be as hard for them. I also believe they deserve to be embarrsed and ridiculed for any wrong doing against the Church. HUMPH this topic makes me angry because people do not comprehend the severity of their crimes.
ReplyDeleteI Believe that the scale of the affect that religious hypocrisy and scandal to the collective faith of the people has depends on the status or the rank of the person how is misleading them. Like if you know the person (maybe personally or through the media)and trust them and then they lie to you, you feel betrayed and have trouble trusting other people just because of that one experience. Certain people in society with power (such as political office members) who misguide a person's faith and feed them lies may have a tremendous effect on that person's faith because when someone who is suppose to represent all that is good goes and does something bad and immoral which causes them to lose your trust you begin to have trouble believing and having faith (especially in God). I Believe that someone who takes hundreds or thousands of people's respect and faith and just throws it aside like its nothing deserves to be publicly ridiculed when they are exposed because not only is the culprit embarrassed but so are the people who trusted in him/her.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that religious hypocrisy is a huge deal. Think of it this way, if a big religious leader of what ever church you belong to was caught doing something unmoral in the eyes of that church how would that make you feel? Personally it would make me feel as if the person does not even care about the church and is just in it for money or power, why else why would they devote their life to it. If these leaders are preaching the faith i believe they should also follow the faith, if they don't why are they involved, it would make we wonder if the religion is just a big scam.
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ReplyDeleteLike Ted Haggard (guy in the picture) and a lot of other random priests and pastors, no one has ever heard of him until the scandal was broadcasted. I honestly don’t think it’s that big of a deal, even if he preaches against drugs and homosexual behavior and then acts on it. I know that might sound strange, but the guy only has one life, you can’t blame him for wanting to have a little fun (no matter what “fun” means to him). If people are going to base their faith on what other popular religious figures do, that’s not too bright. Everyone makes mistakes, Ted Haggard, and all the other people in the media who have been caught doing not-so-moral things, shouldn’t have to endure half the crap they go through. Even though priests who get themselves into trouble preaches not to do things and then do it, they shouldn’t get SO ridiculed. We’re humans, we make hypocritical judgments and we make mistakes; priests, church figures, celebrities- they’re all people and have needs too. And it wouldn’t really hurt my faith at all if I found out about more scandals because I wouldn’t base my faith on what other people do and I wouldn’t think less of other religions too. People are way too quick to judge nowadays.
ReplyDeleteHopefully that made sense
Religious hypocrisy and scandal could possibly really affect those who has strong faith in that certain religion. All those years you have faithfully practice a religion and you find out everything was false pretense can hurt your perspective in faith. All that time your beliefs were filled with conspiracy and you truly gave your loyalty to a religion that was hypocritical. If there were scandals within my religion, I would be a little hurt to know my religion was not as pure as it was proclaimed to be. I agree with Judy as not judging those who should be condemn. Everyone does wrong things on purpose or by accident. What matters the most is trying to find the good aspects in people and trying to have empathy for the careless actions people do.
ReplyDeleteHypocrisy and scandal often occur in religion. Most of the time the one who is judging others gets caught in the hypocritical scandals. For example, Ted Haggard, President of the National Evangelical Association, is married and fathers five children. Ted's everyday job is to condemn homosexuals and any use of drugs. Until recently, he was caught having a sexual affair with a gay prostitute with whom he had sexual intercourse and drugs. Even though he condemned others for their wrongdoings, he himself had committed these sins. He had no right to accuse others for what they did if he also did the same crimes. Ted experienced karma because he judged others and in return, was judged. I think those who commit such hypocritical scandals should learn from their mistakes. They should realize that they can also be exposed to these immoral acts of sin and can be judged the same way. Those who preach intolerance, such as Ted Haggard, should NOT be held to greater public ridicule when they get caught in a calumny. I understand that they were hypocritical towards others but they still committed crimes like everyone else. Hypocritical scandals do affect me because it makes me lose my respect and trust for preachers. For example, if your local minister is preaching/condemning about pedophilic behavior and the next day, you find out he gets involved inappropriate activities. They would appear dishonest and a liar to people and begin to lose faith and respect for that person. Scandals like these often shake one's beliefs. However as long as there are still people who are committed to their faith, I will not be shaken by these immoral examples.
ReplyDeleteQ: How serious is religious hypocrisy and scandal to the collective faith of the people?
ReplyDeleteA: People are very serious about religious hypocrisy and scandals. You should always practice what you preach. Although, people can take it way too far. We are human, and nobody is perfect. We shouldn't look up to people who we think has a higher power/authority than us.
Q: Do these scandals hurt your faith?
A: No sir, they don't. I have a strong faith, and Jesus is basically my Ted Haggard to the Evangelists. I wouldn't know if Jesus made mistakes, considering he's already dead. Scandals are just another way to say (especially in Ted Haggard's case) "I know I have done wrong, but I admit it, But maybe you will be sorry for me." In my opinion.
Q: Should those who preach intolerance be held to greater public ridicule when they get caught doing what they condemn others for?
A: I think they should. If you don't like other people doing it, then why should you?
EX: Steven steals a pencil from Matt. Matt says that Steven will go to hell if he does it.
Matt steals a pencil from Steven, and Steven says he is going to hell for it, but Matt denies it.
I don't know if that was a good example, I really don't care either way.
I know I shouldn't be one to talk about hypocrisy, but it is very true. You get what you deserve. And maybe people should start to practice what they preach...
Yes, I think religious hypocrisy is a major problem with religion today, because it happens mostly all the time, but I don't think it should affect the way you practice the religion. Everyone makes mistakes, even if they are higher up in the government or society, such as a priest or governor. I think scandals do hurt religious faith a little bit, because the person committing the crime is looked up upon thousands of people and if they commit one crime, then the follower thinks that their religion is corrupt. I do think that those who teach intolerance should be held at greater public ridicule if they are caught doing the wrong thing, because that's just being two faced and saying that since you have higher power you could do whatever you want, when the laws/rules should be equal to each individual.
ReplyDeleteI think religious hypocrisy and scandal is a problem in today's society. There are always scandals around us and the last place you would expect to find them is in the church. I don't believe it should affect your faith in your relgion but I do think it is very possible that it can. You look up to your religious leader and trust him and when he goes against what he says it is hard to trust him. The church is suppose to be a place of love, forgiveness and acceptance.But that being said,I think if you are a religious leader and you do something scandalize you should be held to greater ridicule. How can you preach one thing and do another. They are being hypocritical and should be punished for this.
ReplyDeletereligious hypocrisy to any faith hurts the followers. When a religious leader teaches something, especially a teaching that they place major emphasis on. When you are a leader of something major like a part of religion, followers put a lot of faith and trust in to you, but when the leader does not even believe in his own teachings, how can you ? These Scandals do hurt my faith. for example in the catholic church the teaching is no premarital sex. But a priest is never supposed to be married and committed to the church. When they molest children it is a big hit to my faith, because they are obviously not married to the child and it is morally wrong. And i think that people who are Hippocrates should not be anymore humiliated because they already have to deal with it on the inside from not telling.
ReplyDelete• Hypocrisy is bad alone, and when religion is added into the situation, that makes the issue even worse. The amount of seriousness is also dependent on the circumstances, however. Occasionally, there are people who advise good morals to others in which they themselves are incapable of following due to their own issues. By advising others what to do, they can help prevent their own wrong actions from spreading. It's as if a drunk driver was involved in a serious accident and then dedicated the rest of their lives to teaching others about the dangers of drunk driving.
ReplyDelete• On the other hand, some people may not tell others about their mistakes and yet still preach what should be done to others when they don't even do it themselves. These people are not only liars, but also morally-weak people. If they can't follow their own advise, they shouldn't compel others to follow it either. Only preach what you truly support and believe. My faith is not affected by the hypocrisy of others. If there's one thing I learned, it's that you need to expect the unexpected from others. The only life you live is your own and ,like Judicaelle said, you cannot judge others, which leads me to the next question. Should these hypocrites be held to public ridicule? Na, leave em alone. Clearly, as I said above, some hypocrites are seriously attempting to better themselves and humanity as a whole while others are trying to take advantage of the public and manipulate them into believing certain concepts they themselves don't even believe in. Either way, these people need help; not ridicule.
• Ridicule will lead to further animosity between them and the public. If media wasn't so vigorous towards humiliating these people, maybe they would have actually confessed their wrongdoings to the public a long time ago. Let's offer support and acceptance in order to try and further understand the condition of these people. Let's find out why they did what they did. Perhaps then we can really grasp what their message was and it can then help everyone evade the same situation. I guess the prevailing lesson to this is that we shouldn't judge others.
Ok, tonight I'm going to get right to the point instead of writing one of those "tl;dr" posts.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion every kind of hypocrisy is the same. People are hypocrites because they have something to hide. It almost comes natural in human nature to be hypocritical; in essence, hypocrisy is a complex lie. Lie's are used to cover something up. It seems surprisingly simple; in fact, it is so simple that even children practice hypocrisy starting from Pre-K onward! It's a simple game of "reverse-psychology" in which a person promotes an idea but in reality they are trying to conceal the fact that they are secretly supporting the complete and total antithesis.
When I said that this form of hypocrisy starts in Pre-K, I was not exaggerating; the most common form of hypocrisy is "bullying." Bullies tend to harass others because more often than not they are insecure themselves and want to know that they are not the only people that feel insecure; therefore, they bully others in order to "share the pain."
The same concept applies to religious leaders and politicians, they promote that they are "all out against" something and often condemn people based on their interpretation of justice; however, in reality they secretly practice the very act they are condemning. Think about it: If someone lets the world know that they are condemning others the general public will assume that since they are condemning a certain act, they HOPEFULLY would not practice that act. The general public's view of this person would allow the facade to continue for long periods of time until someone is able to provide inconclusive evidence of their hypocrisy. It makes sense.
I do not believe that religious leaders who end up being hypocrites should hurt people's faith. The faith is what you believe in, not the person. If someone's faith is hurt by a religious representative's hypocrisy, that person was misguided; that person obviously did not believe in the religion, they believed in the person and the words they spoke.
I do not believe that a person who preaches intolerance should be held to greater public ridicule. I agree with Judi, I also do not see why anybody should judge anyone else until you've "walked in that person's shoes."
Well uhh.... I guess this DID end up being one of those "tl;dr" posts... hope that doesn't make me a hypocrite -_-"
I think I'm going to answer the questions on Edline here... It's more convenient.
ReplyDelete1/2). No, I do not think that God's way of dealing with hypocrites is to condemn them to public ridicule. I think that God wouldn't want anyone to get upset, I think he (or she.... or it) would try to practice the Utilitarian principle of "the greatest good for the greatest number of people." Therefore, if someone with great political influence is found guilty of hypocrisy and this news is made public it would upset a great majority of this person's followers. Because of this, I don't think it is God's doing, I think it is either Karma at work, or a result of the person's carelessness; or both.
3). I said in my blog post that a person who is guilty of hypocrisy should not be held to public ridicule and I stand firm. Hate only breeds more hate. Although vengeance may be extremely tempting and almost impossible to avoid it is not the civilized way to handle a situation. Although someone may have condemned others I feel that by "forgiving" people it gives that person a feeling of shame and guilt; in my opinion this is the ultimate "pay back."
4). These scandals do not shake my faith. As I said in my blog post If someone's faith is shaken because of a scandal that person obviously did not believe in the faith, they believed in the person preaching the faith. A preacher only serves to aid a person's study of the religion, not as an idol that people should worship. There is a very fine-line between "worship" and "admiration."
Wow... that last post I made about the homework erased my blog answer... great.... ok.. I'll just say the main points I made in the post cuz I don't have enough time to write the whole thing over again.
ReplyDeleteI do not feel that a religious scandal should hurt a person's faith. Because if someone's faith is shaken is means that they didn't believe in the religion, it means they worshiped the person who preached it. There is a fine line between "worship" and "admiration."
People shouldn't be held to greater public ridicule because hate only breeds more hate. Although vengeance may be extremely tempting and almost impossible to avoid it is not the civilized way to handle a situation. Although someone may have condemned others I feel that by "forgiving" people it gives that person a feeling of shame and guilt; in my opinion this is the ultimate "pay back."
My answers to the homework were essentially the answers to the blog.
i think that religious hypocrisy and scandal is a problem because devoted followers of a religion shouldn't be lied to if they find sanctuary in the religion. These leaders should basically be role models and try to teach the religion in the best and truthful way possible. If lying and deceitfulness is your way of gaining supporters, then you obviously aren't cut out for the job. When people are caught doing scandalous things, they should be ridiculed because you are already on top with many followers listening to what you preach and they chose to do wrong when obviously they were already on the right track.
ReplyDeleteI think all religions have some scandals going on in them. To me it doesn't matter, religion is about faith not organization. I lack a beleif in the purpose not in the method. Unfortunately most religions probably do want to gain support, but there are some devoted members who beleive it purely. Gaining support isn't too much of a bad thing either. Some religions actually do good with the support they gather, like help the poor and feed the hungry. But in the end, it comes back to your own personal faith.
ReplyDeleteMr. Bauer, I think the blog is glitched. I can't see anyone else's posts.
ReplyDeleteScandal and hypocrisy is very serious in a religion and to the collective people that worship it. It would not seem easy to follow a leader that is doing the exact thing that they speak out against. It would make one question the religion for placing a higher position in the person who is commiting such a scandalous act. The religion would seem feeble if they aren't able to pick leaders that can live by the word in which they proclaim. I honestly think that they should receive more public ridicule for committing such hypocrisy. They can not speak out against something that they know deep down inside that they are doing themselves.
ReplyDeleteReligious hypocrisy and scandal can be very serious to one member of an organization's faith, but irrelevant to another. Take Catholicism for example; there were a couple of occasions when Catholic priests were accused of sexual misconduct with underage boys. Very few people if any, let these incidents shake their faith and turn them away from the Catholic Church. I think hypocrisy and scandal feel much more serious and realistic when the problem relates to you. Don't get me wrong, I think that what these priests were accused of doing is horrible; but it did not turn me away from my faith. However if i had a little brother who was in that situation, I don't think i would ever be able to look at the Church the same way for the rest of my life. There have been very few scandals that have hurt my faith. When it comes to religious figures of today, for me, let's just say that "ignorance is bliss". My faith is based on God; not the people who represent him on Earth. For the last question; I don't think people should preach intolerance in the first place! Everyone here is human and we all make mistakes. When someone preaches intolerance it makes them seem as if they think they are above everyone else. I do not think it's fair to increase the punishment for someone who preaches intolerance but does not follow it. They make mistakes too no matter how much they hate to admit it and they should be treated like equals also.
ReplyDeleteWhen someone preaches against one thing then turns around and does it himself, i believe that it is wrong. i hate hypocrites. I believe that if you are out there judging other people, then you give the open door for people to judge you the same way that you judge them. I do not think people should preach intolerance at all, especially if they are doing it themselves. It is judgmental and wrong. Although religious hypocrisy is wrong it would not shake my faith and from the responses of everybody else, i dont think it would shake many peoples faith. The issue with the priests and the misconduct with boys is disturbing and wrong but it didnt affect my faith at all. Maybe it would affect someone who how been directly affected by it but the the general public, it would not shake their faith.
ReplyDelete-I agree with Patricia when she says i hate hypocrites. If your preaching telling someone it's not okay for them to do inappropriate things, you should practice what you teach. When you do what you advice others not to do you give the impression that your better than everyone else and somehow your exempt from the laws of the church. Usually, it does not affect the entire church's faith, but like numerous people said it usually affects the person it is happening to faith. Scandals in the faith usually do not affect my faith. Sad to say i ignore what the scandals and move on with my life. I think if I were a more church oriented person I would care more, but since I'm not I don't. And I also think those who preach about intolerance and then get caught being a hypocrite should get condemned more because they are being unfaithful to the church and the words of God.
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