I go to a Catholic school, as some of you readers might have heard before. Last Friday, we had mass. Technically it wasn’t a mass, just a MLK “celebration of peace,” but whatever, it’s the same thing me as an atheist. Anyway, we had a preacher from, I think, Oakland visit us. He was a rather powerful and articulate speaker, I have to admit, even though he pronounced affluent as affluent (just nitpicking). As other people were getting into it, giving “amens” as requested, I still maintained a cynical detachment. Thus, I caught this one point of hypocrisy. I’m willing to bet $10 that I’m the only one in the building who caught it. This reaffirms my earlier entry that hypocrisy arises from ignorance.

Anyway, here it goes. He says that us kids don’t have to live up to the standard that the media and corporate America gives. We should be who we are and be happy with that. Not too long afterwards, he mentions how we should live up to God’s standards. Granted, one set of standards, the one he condoned, was better than the other. Yet, it’s still hypocritical when to say be who you are, then say you should strive to reach a different standard instead. Perhaps this can be reconciled with a technicality, by saying that those standards allow you to live to your true potential, becoming your true self. Whatever, still seems hypocritical to me.

I also noticed a bit of anti-intellectualism, despite the fact that he did go to a good school (can’t remember which one). It reminded me of our studies in AP US history on the Second Great Awakening. One could argue that we are going through a third.

On a lighter note, his hairstyle made it seem like he could sell an ’84 Ford. I mean, he looked like a used car salesman. But, as you can see from my analysis, I didn’t judge him by his appearances (part of the message of that one guy I mentioned in the beginning). Besides, I couldn’t get a good view from my seat. Yet overall, despite my nitpicking on that one point of hypocrisy, he did give a good talk with a good message.

[01/24/03 – EDIT: Added that link to my earlier entry on hypocrisy, so I also took out “(will add link later)”]