ON: HYPOCRISY, THE EIGHTH DEADLY SIN

Tia Mitchell, in a report published by the Tampa Bay Times on Thursday, April 24, 2014, quotes John Tupps, a spokesman for Florida Governor Rick Scott.

"Gov. Scott is pro-life and believes that the lives of unborn children must be protected." 

The article was in response to passage of the "Unborn Victims of Violence Act," which makes it a separate crime if a fetus is harmed in the commission of a criminal act. The bill sets no boundaries on whether the fetus is viable or not.

On the very same day, in the Metro Report of the Tampa Bay Times, it was reported that Robert Hendrix was executed the day before at the Florida State Prison in Starke. The report provided details.

"The 47-year-old Hendrix was the fourth inmate executed by Florida this year and the 16th since Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011."

On June 14, 2013, according to the Naples News, Governor Scott signed the Timely Justice Act of 2013, which speeds the process to execute death-row inmates. It seems that for Scott, who must sign each execution order, the process to carry out an execution was not fast enough.

Merriam-Webster defines hypocrisy as, "Behavior that does not agree with what someone claims to believe or feel." It comes from the Greek hypokrisis, the act of playing a part on the stage.

No one may harm a fetus in Florida, but the state is sanctioned to kill adult human beings. The unborn, who have yet to breathe a scintilla of fresh air, are protected in the womb by statute.

Those who breathe in the Florida-sunshine-dappled air and commit a grievous crime are fair game for extinction. If this is not the height of hypocrisy, I do not know what qualifies.

I choose Governor Scott as my example here, but he is only one of thousands of hypocrites in government. For example, John Boehner talks of the love of family then helps draft and votes for legislation cutting food stamps for America's poor.

President Obama talks about changing the dialogue in the Middle East, yet continues to kill Middle Easterners via drone warfare.

Churches are no less guilty.  The Roman Catholic Church yesterday elevated John Paul II to sainthood.

The first from Poland, this Pope did absolutely nothing to stop the rampant sexual abuse of children within the church during his reign. Instead he supported moving pedophiles around the world, as if moving chess pieces.

He also defended the serial pedophile, rapist, and thief, Marcial Maciel Degollado. This Mexican priest is perhaps the church's worst criminal in the last thousand years. John Paul II makes Clement VI look like a saint.

Ordinary people are no different.  A man goes to church professing Christian faith, then slips out Thursday night for a tryst with his extramarital lover. A woman claims to be a devout Muslim, then blows up innocent civilians in Kabul. 

None of us are perfect, especially me. But, then, most of us are not telling the rest of the world how to live. Most of us are barely able to care for ourselves and our immediate family.

I can write this without equivocation when it comes to heads of state, however: 

YOU CANNOT CLAIM TO BE PRO-LIFE WHILE YOU EXECUTE PEOPLE.

The Catholic Church is at least consistent on that point...no abortion, no birth control, and no capital punishment. If I were Pope I would add hypocrisy as the eighth deadly sin. It is at least as terrible as wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. And, potentially more harmful to others.