In the public sphere, this is one of the most common accusations to fly around. The pseudo-conservatives mock John Edwards for being a rich man who talks about poverty, and Al Gore for being a rich man who talks about the need to consume less energy. It’s the same on the left. David Vitter and Larry Craig are singled out for criticism largely on account of perceived hypocrisy — they preach morality and do not practice it.
But this makes little sense. As Catholics, we should be more interested in the common good than the personal virtue of those charged with responsibility for the common good. We must recognize that we are all sinners, and simply because we know the difference between right and wrong does not mean we always live up to it in our daily lives, and the same holds true for public figures. I see no necessary contradiction between the public pronouncements of Craig and Vitter on sexual morality, and their private sins. Indeed, their keen awareness of their private failings may have made them more sensitive to the importance of morality in society. Of course, only God knows what is in their hearts, but that is precisely the point: it is not for us to judge.
Similarly, John Edwards is right on poverty and Al Gore is right on the environment. Why must we make it into a personal attack on these men? What is better: to vote for a rich man who cares about the plight of the poor or a rich man who does not care but is somehow not a “hypocrite”? Is it better to select very rich men pretending to be average guys (Bush, Thompson for example), while implementing policies that simply do not follow through on the pretence? We would avoid all these problems if we simply left the personal failings of public figures to God, and focused on their contribution to public policy.
Of course, it’s a little different when a person who has committed a certain sin attacks another for committing the same sin. This is a very different circumstance from stressing the importance of morality for the social order in general. I’m thinking here of people like Deal Hudson and New Gingrich attacked Bill Clinton for inappropriate sexual behavior.
Of course, Jesus had quite a lot to say about hypocrisy. He leveled that charge against his fellow Pharisees and religious teachers who used religion to serve their own ends. That should be a grave lesson to those who exploit the faith for purely political purposes today. They know who they are.
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