Let’s Talk About Hypocrites

When I first got sober, I was terrified of hypocrites. The counselors in treatment told me that without the companionship of my drinking friends, I would face some lonely days. They suggested that I join a church. I couldn’t do that because churches, I believed, were filled with hypocrites, and despite my significant personal failings, I would not lower myself further by associating with hypocrites.

As I look back, my abhorrence of hypocrisy was silly. I was emerging from two decades of alcoholism. I had been a terrible son, a terrible husband, a terrible employee and a terrible citizen. The task before me was to clean up the damage I’d done and earn back a lost reputation. I had a lot on my plate. I am not sure why I had time to worry about other peoples’ hypocrisy, but I sure did.

In the hierarchy of moral transgressions, hypocrisy is bush-league sin. It doesn’t make any of the good lists. It is not in the Ten Commandments. With the exception of murder and the graven-image one, I’d broken all the commandments many times. Hypocrisy never made it into the seven deadly sins. They are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride, all of which were long-time companions of mine. But it was hypocrisy that got my goat, a sin barely able to get off the bench and into the game. I cannot explain why I had no problem sitting in a twelve-step meeting with armed robbers…