False Sense of Maturity

MSN has created a fun little Hypocrisy Hall of Shame, and no list of hypocrites would be complete without plenty of religious figures. This entry is a no-brainer:

Ted Haggard

He was pastor to thousands, president of the National Association of Evangelicals and consultant to presidential strategist Karl Rove. Ted Haggard, 52, was also a regular customer of male prostitute Mike Jones, who in 2006 claimed monthly, drug-fueled romps with the preacher. Haggard confessed to “sexual immorality” and resigned from his Colorado Springs’ New Life Church. As Jones later told the New York Times, “Here is Ted preaching about being shameful — You won’t see the kingdom of God if you’re gay, and blah, blah, blah — and then he sneaks around with me.”

And then there is this guy, who you could say wrote the book on moral hypocrisy (sorry in advance for the upcoming pun):

Bill Bennett

Education secretary for President Reagan and the first President Bush’s drug czar, Bill Bennett, 65, calls himself in his official bio “a man of strong, reasoned convictions.” He writes books with titles like “The Moral Compass” and “The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories.” Basically, not the kind of guy expected to lose an estimated $8 million over a decade at video poker and slot machines. But in 2003, the Washington Monthly revealed Bennett had done just that. Perhaps recalling his own harsh words toward irresponsible addicts, America’s morality maven said he would quit gambling.

Oops! Better makes that the books on moral hypocrisy.

And my last favorite entry on the list shows that even non-Christians can be hypocrites, as she is deeply Jewish:

Laura Schlessinger

Radio’s Dr. Laura berates callers for premarital sex and cohabitation, and working while raising children. Recently on “Today,” she said wives who don’t focus on their husband’s needs are partly to blame if he cheats. One would assume that Schlessinger, 61, has lived a moral life. Well, except for the time a boyfriend snapped nude photos of her, while she was married to another man. When the pics surfaced in 1998, Schlessinger, who actually isn’t a shrink (she has a doctorate in physiology), denied their veracity before coming clean: “I was my own moral authority,” she said in Newsweek. “The inadequacy of that way of life is painfully obvious today.”

Luckily for her, the pictures never became a very big scandal, likely because the public was eager to avoid seeing Dr. Laura naked.