When we see hypocrisy in our self or other individuals it is easy to point out and call attention to, if we wish. However, when we see hypocrisy in institutions, Catholic Church, US Government or Marquette University how do we point it out? We do not want to use words like ‘racism’ or militarism’ but perhaps that is what we are dealing with.

In moral theology I was taught there is individual sin and institutional sin. We might want to condemn President Obama for authorizing a ‘kill list’ every Tuesday but since he is the President of the institution of the United States of America, and certainly if we have Democratic leanings, we tend to let it go. If a teacher at Marquette University would teach that abortion is moral the teacher would soon be dismissed since the teaching goes against “institutional values.” But if a teacher in Department of Military Science for the Army teaches reflexive killing, killing without conscience we tend to be silent about it, after all it is the United States Army.

Marquette is a Jesuit Catholic University yet the founder of the Jesuits, St. Ignatius of Loyola, renounced his military rank and taught that Jesuits should be followers of the Way of Jesus, who promoted nonviolence in the Gospels. Yet the military at Marquette is allowed to teach the priority of military values over Gospel values.

When Jesus confronted the institutions of the Pharisees, a Jewish religious institution that Jesus was probably part of, he called them hypocrites, play actors or fakes, “who pretend to hold beliefs, or whose actions are not consistent with their claimed beliefs.” In Marquette new draft of a mission statement which I saw today there was much hypocrisy, especially since they allow teaching of killing and military values over conscience on campus.

Ever since I was a student in a Jesuit High school here in Milwaukee I have been concerned about what we preach as Christians, followers of the Way of Jesus and what we do in everyday life. As I grow older I saw that the hypocrisy of individuals is often protected by hypocrisy of institution. For the first three hundred years of the Christian church it was morally wrong for a Christian to be a soldier. Than the Roman Emperor, Constantine made Christianity the religious of the Roman Empire and suddenly it was okay to join the military. The institution of the Catholic Church for many years endorsed slavery. When slavery was condemned by many the Church changed its teaching.
The saying is that you cannot change anyone but yourself but one can create an environment where it is easier for an individual to be good. However, when it comes to an “institution” how to you change it, by tearing it down and building a new one?

Don Helder Camara the Archbishop of Brazil said “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” Here is a true Christian who when he confronted the hypocrisy of his times was called a ‘communist.’ Maybe the way to change institutional hypocrisy is just to call it as it is and let the blows and insults of the institution come at you.

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