What is hypocrisy? Is it always a mortal sin? It it hypocrisy if it is not dealing with religion?

[BigMike1]

What is hypocrisy? Is it always a mortal sin? It it hypocrisy if it is not dealing with religion?

 

[StJosephPrayForUs]

" a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not : behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion" it sounds like a form of lying, which is intrinsically evil and always wrong. If someone knows of their hypocrisy, the wrongness of it, and willfully continues in it, it would be a mortal sin. If it lacks knowledge or will it would be venial. You can be a hypocrite in nonreligious matters. For example claiming to be a vegan but secretly and deliberately eating steaks in private, having deceived others on your moral status, and also being a hypocrite in your behavior.

 

[do_justly_love_mercy]

It it hypocrisy if it is not dealing with religion?

Yes. E.g., a politician opposes private education but sends their child to one of the most prestigious private schools in the country. That’s not religious, but it’s hypocrisy. Or a school principal who teaches children not to steal, but is embezzling from the school budget. Or an acquaintance of mine who floods social media with posts saying that insisting on proper spelling and grammar is racist and classist, but in private bullies people she considers to be poorly educated.