If someone you knew said “I am a Democrat”
But every presidential election they voted Republican.
And every local election they voted Republican.
And they never go to the Democratic town halls
But they show up to all Republican ones, faithfully.
And every time they spoke, their talking points were always Republican.
And they also had Republican paraphernalia all around their house.
And they had a Republican sticker on their car.
And they followed Republican social media accounts and watched Republicans news.
And whenever you brought up Democratic issues, they had no interest in even trying to do the things the Democratic party is supposed to do.
Would you think, “This is someone who is devoted to being a Democrat”?
And if not, how would you categorize them?
A Republican in denial, perhaps?
Now substitute Democrat with Christian. This is mostly what I see these days; people saying they are Christian but everything about their lifestyle is secular. And whenever I mention it, the default response is “The Bible also says don’t judge”. But, is this a judgement or simply an observation?
If someone says “I don’t smoke cigarettes” while smoking a cigarette, and you say “you’re smoking one now”, is that a judgement or an observation?
I typed “Why people live to themselves” in a search engine and the first paragraph it showed read:
We lie to ourselves to protect our self-images, which allows us to act immorally while maintaining a clear conscience.
I think this perfectly summarizes it all.
Cognitive dissonance is real…
