It seems that I could write an entire daily blog on hypocrisy alone; of course, Jesus seemed to talk a lot about, so it is nothing new. This time it is Rep. Clay Higgins from Louisiana. It seems that some of our elected leaders can’t let go of the “Haitians are eating our pets” lie that has caused so much pain and suffering to that group and immigrants in general. He tweeted, “These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters… but damned if they don’t feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP” and “All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th,” – Inauguration Day. After being called out for these racist words, Mr. Higgins doubled down. He finally deleted them, but as we know, the damage is done. His words echo the way Nazis spoke of immigrants.
House Speak Mike Johnson, also from Louisiana, stumbled for an answer and then said that Higgins, “went to the back and he prayed about it, and he regretted it, and he pulled the post down.” Higgins also claimed that the FBI had “ghost” buses of informants dressed like Trump supporters at the Capitol Building during the insurrection, whatever that means. So, this kind of fringe behavior seems to be the rule for Mr. Higgins, not the exception. My point? Mr. Higgins claims to be a Christian, hence the “more hypocrisy” part. And I know – we see this kind of behavior all the time, so what am I whining about? For Jesus, being a hypocrite was just about the worst thing anyone could be. When Jesus and John the Baptizer wanted to really vent, they called people hypocrites and broods of vipers.
There are hypocrites in every religion and of every political persuasion, so this is nothing new. The reason I keep pointing this out is that I think it is high time that people of faith started speaking truth about this hypocrisy. We also need to be careful of the “holier than thou” trap, because we are all one word or sentence away from being hypocrites ourselves. Being a lover of God and humanity in a secular, sinful culture like ours isn’t easy, but making excuses for ourselves is. Mr. Johnson said that Mr. Higgins is a “very principled man” and “we believe in redemption around here.” That seems to be just one more way of weaponizing forgiveness. Before there is forgiveness and redemption, there needs to be confession and penitence. That is, if you are a Christian, like Mr. Higgins.
We all misspeak – we all say words we wish we hadn’t – and we all can be forgiven. First, though, there needs to be contrition. Our God is a God of grace and forgiveness, but also one of expectation that we mature in our faith and make up for the wrong we do. I can’t see into Mr. Higgin’s mind or heart, but I can hear his words and read his tweets. He needs to do better. He has made a threat that may have dire consequences; if Mr. Trump wins and Higgins follows through, we will remember. Which will probably be too late.
Prayer – Holy God, forgive us and teach us and give us the courage to admit when we are wrong so that we can truly make up for the hurt we cause. Amen.
Today’s art is a mural in an art district, but I can’t pin down where.