Hypocrites! That’s what we really are. Our double standards keep staring us in the face each day of our lives. Our inconsistent yardsticks have made us to always cherry-pick. Morality has become subjective. What’s right and wrong have become absolutely relative.
We all are hypocrites. We hate religion because it came from a foreign land yet have embraced the same white man’s education. Not only that. We are so engrossed in his technology, too. We blame our colonizers for our woes when we have actually colonized state wealth and property. Well, we all have double standards.
Don’t tell me we are not hypocrites. We wail when others discriminate against us because of our skin color yet we always put others down because of where they are coming from. We scream our lungs out and crave for pity in the face of racism yet we dish out all shades of tribalism at our own blood.
Yes, we are hypocrites! We sanctimoniously stand on the podium in our cassocks clothed in innocence and piety every Sunday. However, between the two Sundays, there’s no clear-cut difference between those we preach to and us! We preach what we are yet to practice and practice what we don’t preach. We say what we don’t do and… do what we are ashamed to say! An upside down society.
Tell me you are not a hypocrite. You fight against child marriage on one hand and demand for sex before giving ladies job opportunities, on another hand. You are a so-called responsible parent yet have made your bed a criterion for job qualification. Dirty double standards!
Aren’t we hypocrites? We say our jobs are not well paying but we are not any much productive. We treat state property anyhow because they aren’t ours after all. We substitute working hours for playing and praying hours and use the rest of the time to while away time. We cry for more money yet give out only little responsibility. We say we want change but the truth is, we need a change of our lives― a whole makeover!
Hypocrites! We hide behind our religious veils to condemn single mothers but only ‘abortion doctors’ know how many of our own babies were never born. We have guts to call others bastards in public when we are keeping ‘deputy wives and husbands’ in our closets. We smite others because they have no fathers when we know our children have multiple, alternative fathers! Let’s clap for ourselves.
We all are hypocrites. The same lips we use to exhort God, we also use to extort money from our fellow men for jobs we are monthly paid to do. The same hands lifted to God in praise, we also lift to bloat figures. The same heart we believe God’s word with, we use to deceive others with, too. You see, don’t tell me you’re a Christian. Your character will.
We bemoan young Ghanaian girls being maltreated in the Middle East yet we don’t even treat our maids and subordinates right. We say we love all men but our maids stand out among our children because of how badly they have been treated and how poorly dressed they are. If you want to see the love that dwells in a family, look at the smile that dwells on the faces of their maids and servants. How you treat your maid and subordinates is your character!
We all are hypocrites because we think we are not. We have graded sins according to our own convenience. Our weights for sin are inconsistent and keep fluctuating. As long as we are doing them, they are not bad enough. As long as we are involved, it becomes only a little evil.
We keep others imprisoned in our minds for doing wrong in another way different from ours. We accuse and condemn them right in our minds because according to our yardstick, their sins outweigh ours!
You see, we all have multiple standards. Our standards have never been regular. When our children want to marry from other regions in Ghana farther from where we come from, we discourage them saying it is too far. However, when they want to marry another person faraway abroad, we exclaim, “Oh! It’s just here!” We are all hypocrites because we can’t seem to resist the temptation of some supposed wealth.
We are all hypocrites because we praise our mentors in their face yet speak ill about them at their back. We cripple our leaders with petty lies yet brandish our Ghana flags as though we are drenched in patriotism. We wish our leaders failed because they don’t belong to our party forgetting our party is part of a whole nation!
We have double standards because we wholeheartedly support celebrities we don’t know yet find it almost impossible to help our friends who need just an iota of such assistance. We would go every length to offer immeasurable assistance to people of fame yet can’t do anything outside our comfort for that neighbor who badly needs it.
We are indeed hypocrites because we are busily running errands with our lives for our extramarital partners when our family perishes in loneliness and poverty. We are doling out tons of cash for sexual favors from strangers when our spouses need to travel to the moon and back just to get our attention.
When you try to throw a stone at others, don’t think about them. Think about yourself first. You may only be throwing that stone at your own self. We all need grace. We all need forgiveness. We all need Jesus. When you say a prayer for sinners, don’t forget to say the first one for yourself.
The writer is a playwright and Chief Scribe of Scribe Communications (www.scribecommltd.com), a writing company based in Accra. His upcoming play is TRIBELESS. Get interactive with him on his Facebook page, Kobina Ansah.