Friday, July 14, 2017

The 8th Deadly Sin



I will assume the reader knows about the Seven Deadly Sins.  What the reader may not know, however, is that there is no actual Biblical reference to the specific number (7) associated with the bundle of misdeeds we’ve come to know today.  Both the Old Testament and the New Testament address the various wrongful acts and thoughts and principal vices from different writings by the prophets and disciples but we will not read anywhere that says, “Seven Deadly Sins”. The Ten Commandments, on the other hand, are indubitably unambiguous about the number 10 and specificity of what man is supposed to do and not do as written on those two stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai, as depicted in the Old Testament.
 
Strictly speaking, if we must go by the definition of principal vices, we should add more to the number today. After all, modern civilization has brought additional behavioral burdens and moral challenges to society not known to the prophets and religious leaders two to four thousand years ago. There could be more, depending on how one navigates through the new morality.

Evagrius Ponticus is credited with coming up with an original list of 8 principal vices in the 4th century that later inspired John Cassian to also write about them.  Pope Gregory in the 6th century reduced the number to 7 Cardinal Sins now presently delineated in Roman Catholic Theology: Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Anger, and Sloth.  There is a debate though as to how deadly the seven sins really are.  Not literally anyway as some would argue but in an allegorical sense perhaps – referring more to the death of the spirit or of the soul.

If I were to add one - and just one - cardinal sin to the existing list, I come up with hypocrisy. Granted, the Pharisees and publicans had been chastised for that behavior in the New Testament, it did not make the original list.  Those criticized mostly for that behavior were religious leaders, government officials and tax collectors. Is it something acquired late in life?  You see, mild degrees of pride, greed, envy, over consumption, anger and tantrum, and laziness are traits noticeable among teenagers and even young children but hardly is hypocrisy discernible early in youth.  It is purely an adult malady developed later in life, it seems.

The word hypocrisy has its origins from the Greek language (hypokrisis) where it was regarded with a somewhat neutral connotation. It was at first associated with Greek theater where play acting on stage was what actors did.  As actors played different roles, their public performance were just exactly that –character impersonation.  Hypocrites were stage actors who clearly were nothing more than role players.  When the Romans came to power, actors were looked down upon for their “counterfeit persona”.  It did not take long for the word associated with acting – hypocrisy – to slide into disrepute.

By the time the Bible was translated into the King James Version, the word had lost its original connection to role playing and acting but took on its current meaning, to wit, pretentiousness, or “the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform”.  But yet again we see its meaning take another pivot in the 21st century.

Self-righteousness was what the Pharisees were associated with in the Book of Luke but the key was not so much that of merely displaying piety publicly.  It is of appearing to be pious in places of worship or where they can be publicly noticed then go on to behave entirely differently when they are by themselves or dealing with others.  For example, some folks today can be devoutly religious – regularly attending church and giving generously to it – but take on a very uncharitable behavior when it comes to doing business or in social settings not connected to places of worship.

From the movie “The Godfather”, a metaphorical presentation of extreme hypocrisy was depicted in the episode, “Baptism of Fire”, when Michael Corleone was standing as godfather to his sister’s son at a church baptismal ceremony.  As that was happening, the scenes cut away to the killings of five or so other rival crime bosses that were sanctioned by Michael himself. That was at near the movie’s denouement actually – though let us not forget it was still just a movie - but we must realize that history is filled with more horrific examples of man’s inhumanity to man in the name of religion and other supposedly “just” causes. 

We must mention these extreme cases so that then we can move on to more subtle examples but no less insidious.  They can be just as deadly though not noticeably detectable because the lines do get blurred where politics and the news media are involved. Today, the consuming public is overwhelmed with a daily barrage of information from the broadcast and newspaper media as never before.  Unfortunately the purveyors of information no longer just report the news; instead, they now want to shape public opinion or even blatantly align the coverage of the news to suit certain political agenda, or worse they have become embroiled in pure partisanship. Many and they’re from all different sides, are no longer unbiased disbursers of information; alarmingly, some do not even pretend anymore.  There is obviously a huge difference between reporting and explaining on one hand and taking up positions on the other, as to endorse certain policies from one political party while conscientiously opposing those from the other.

And let us not forget proponents of causes coming from luminaries in the social and entertainment world.  When some are gripped by fear of global warming or climate change due to excessive emission of carbon then they must answer these first: (a) why trot the globe in the worst carbon-emitting mode of transportation – private jets?  At least, commercial jetliners carry more people than a handful; (b) why choose to live in a 10,000 square foot air-conditioned home occupied by two people? Often, if they are out traveling in jets and yachts, the empty house remain climatically controlled, consuming and wasting energy - another hypocritical dagger plunged into the environmental cause; (c) why not carpool to this or that entertainment award ceremony instead of individual limousines lining up for hours, spewing carbon while inching their way in and out of the self-congratulatory venues espousing their concern against climate change? These folks are no less hypocritical than the Pharisees from over 2,000 years ago.  Do these folks even know what they’re talking about – clinging to the bumper sticker of climate change without realizing that climate does change, no matter what? 

We ask why a feminist organization only endorses the views of women from their side of the ideological divide but vigorously demean women who speak from a different point of view.  Why don’t they ask why women are not allowed to drive, vote or be seen in public without a head covering in many parts of the world?  Why do they have the right to speak on behalf of women wanting to terminate the life of the unborn while doing everything to silence those who speak for that child?  

This is why this 8th deadly sin is truly more deadly than the other seven.  Hypocrisy is not only pretentiousness, it is a pretender – masked as representing a just cause, a moral value, a social conscience by and for those who live and behave otherwise.  When Marin County can continue to be exempt from affordable housing laws in California because such dwellings could lower property values of the multi-million dollar homes already there, then the height of hypocrisy has been scaled. You see, it is in those very homes where many of the elite live who in public speak out for the poor and the down trodden but would prefer that their area remain immaculately pure.  But they will speak for low-cost housing for those who cut their yard, service their swimming pools, clean their homes for as long as these service providers live from at least twenty miles away. Movie actors and directors rail against the Second Amendment but have no qualms making movies where shooting and killing take up more film footage than actual conversation.

If enough of politicians and world leaders believe in the hypocrisy, civilization will see itself spiraling into an abyss of false moral values and social decay.  That is why hypocrisy is indeed much deadlier than the other seven


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