[MrWookie]

JAK,

I don't think doing things you know to be wrong is necessarily hypocrisy. Humans are weak, and we can't always be perfect, even if we know what to do. The hypocrisy is when we judge and condemn others for their shortcomings while trying to establish our own righteousness. A smoker admonishing people not to start smoking is not necessarily a hypocrite. He may just be a guy who screwed up and is now an addict, no matter how much he'd like to shake his addiction. A DEA agent who smokes reefer on the side is a hypocrite, though.

There's a difference between teaching the scripture and enforcing the scripture, and you can definitely do one without the other.

There's a whole lot to read in the casting stones story. I've always read the concluding "go, and sin no more," not as a command meant to strike fear into the heart of the adulteress, but as a proclamation of her freedom. She is no longer a slave to her sin and its consequences, but she is free to breathe in the fresh air of a better life. She'll probably slip up again, but she'll still know to whom to turn to shed the chains for her once again.

Great passages at the end there, and very true.