Have you seen Tartuffe?  A play by the French playwright Moliere, Tartuffe is a study in the dangers of religious hypocrisy.  Although Moliere was directing it at the Catholic Church (the dominant religion of sixteenth century France), his observations are relevant to any religious tradition today.  Besides the problem of evil (briefly, if God is omnipotent and good, why do evil and suffering exist:  cannot God do something?), nothing pushes people from religion, of any sort, more than hypocrisy.  Why can't people of faith live in a way that is consistent with what they preach?

     It's a worthy accusation and, unfortunately, all too true.  There is not a person of faith anywhere on the planet whose behavior always aligns perfectly with what she believes.  And it doesn't do to say, well, this person is forgiven by God.  While this may well be, it does not resolve the pain that poor behavior causes for those who experience it. 

     

    What is a person of faith to do?  The psalmist had a useful observation in this regard.  He wrote, "Relax, let go, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).  Indeed.  We all stumble, yes, religious and faith-based or not.  We're only human.

    What matters, however, is how we stumble. Do we stumble in an accidental world, a world in which we have no real way to define what is true, no good way to determine right and wrong; or do we stumble in a purposeful creation, a creation of a vision which undergirds all things?  In the former, remedy is difficult.  In the latter, though remedy is also difficult, it is a remedy that, as Tartuffe's accusers found, lasts.  It is rooted in the point of God.