Question:
Does it bother you more when it is a ‘religious’ person who behaves
improperly?
Answer: The “soft”
answer would be that despite their religiosity, religious folks are
just people after all, who share the sins and foibles of other humans,
so we shouldn’t judge them harshly. The “hard” answer naturally
suggests the H word — hypocrisy.
The worlds of faith and religion depend to a large extent on the power
of credibility, i.e. the dynamic power of example and role-modelling.
This power of example resides not only in holy scripture and the lives
of the founders of the world religions, but also in believing
individuals and the community. “Living the life” is a scriptural
requirement.
To use a commercial analogy: in business, the salesperson must believe
in the product, but she is not the product. However, to be effective,
in religion, the salesperson (the believer) and the product (the
demonstration of faith) should converge. If a spiritual/religious
person advocates for, or is an apologist for any religion, then
personal credibility becomes paramount. Personal credibility depends on
example.
Everyone knows that religion especially demands ethical and spiritual
behaviour from its followers. When egregious behaviour or gross
violation of moral principal is perpetrated by the religious, great
harm results. We know that large numbers of people have left religious
communities, and even lost faith, because of the immoral or unbalanced
behaviour of the hypocrite and/or the fanatic.
Many Bahá’í texts bear on the theme of the necessity of the coherence
of words with deeds. These passages will serve as examples: “Therefore,
you must without delay employ your powers in spreading the effulgent
glow of the love of God and so order your lives that you may be known
and seen as examples of its radiance” (‘Abdul-Bahá, The Promulgation of
Universal Peace, p. 8).
“God sent His Prophets into the world to teach and enlighten man, to
explain to him the mystery of the Power of the Holy Spirit, to enable
him to reflect the light, and so in his turn, to be the source of
guidance to others” (‘Abdul-Bahá, Paris Talks, p. 61). Love does no
harm, and guidance is accomplished by words, but especially by deeds. -
Jack
McLean
