Reply #4: Your tone was not wrong

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

In fact, when I first read your reply, I thought this was what you'd written after you'd cooled down, as a second response to this professor. In the professor's reply, he's splitting hairs when he tries to define "hypocrite" by saying it can only be applied to someone's beliefs. I don't think that was what Jesus was talking about when he spoke with scorn about the actions of hypocrites who prayed loudly for display so that others would think them pius. Your definition of the term was more accurate, and you used it to frame your reasons for criticism.

Personally, I feel that there's an "action test" that one can take when it comes to values--you can tell what you truly value by your actions. An alcoholic can say they value sobriety, but if their actions are to go out driving while drunk and never going to an AA meeting or checking into a rehab clinic, can you honestly say that they do value sobriety? If a man values marriage as a sacred commitment, he doesn't cheat on his wife, with anybody, any time. If he does, he needs to re-examine his values, because they aren't what he says they are. Anyone who has been in a relationship with a cheating spouse (as my mother was with my father)can tell you that talk is cheap-actions mean something.