CFO Hypocrisy

Chicken Farmers of Ontario ("CFO") talk a great game.  Sadly, CFO's actions and their results achieved leave much to be desired.  If CFO was incompetent, we could easily forgive them.  Unfortunately, many feel, as do I, that CFO is a hypocrite, and therefore CFO's sins are unforgivable.

What is a hypocrite?

"a person who claims or pretends to have certain beliefs about what is right but who behaves in a way that disagrees with those beliefs."

A thesaurus gives 39 synonyms for hypocrite, most of which you are likely familiar with.

Why are hypocrites unforgivable?

"The only vice which cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy."

 William Hazlitt (1778 – 1830), English writer & painter, one of the greatest English literary critics.

The 10 Commandments tells us it is a sin to bear false witness.  Consider the hypocrite, who bears false witness against themselves:

"The hypocrite's crime is that he bears false witness against himself. What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core."

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975),
political theorist and author of On Revolution, 1963

Others offer similar warnings:

"The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity."

André Gide (1869-1951), French author, Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature

The Bible cautions us against hypocrites and hypocrisy in 18 different verses, spread through 6 Books:

• Psalms 26:4;
• Matthew 6:2, 6:5, 6:16, 7:5, 15:7, 22:18, 23:1, 23:13, 23:15, 23:23, 23:25, 23:27, 23:28, 23:29, 24:51;
• Mark 7:6, 12:15;
• Luke 6:42, 12:1, 12:56, 13:15;
• Galatians 2:13;
• 1 Peter 2:1

  A hypocrite is like a wolf in sheep's clothing.  The best and most clear reproachment comes to us from the Bible with Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, as re-told in the NIV Bible by Matthew 7:15

“¹⁵ Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them."

Therefore we can most easily recognize a hypocrite by their fruits, what they have done, the end results of their actions.

I hope that I have adequately proven the dangers of hypocrisy.

Tomorrow, let's follow Jesus' recommendations, and review CFO's results by using CFO's own words, according to CFO's Annual Report 2014.

We will see if we can make the accusation of CFO's hypocracy stick, and find them guilty as charged.