First Words

Playing to the crowds

J. D. Vance’s lies about Haitian immigrants reveal his willingness 
to trade his dignity for attention.

Nothing seems to boil the blood of Jesus quite like the behavior of hypocrites. That’s my take from the biblical evidence. Other sinners—thieves, prostitutes, and murderers, to name a few—receive his reproach in compassionate packaging. Not so with hypocrites. These ones who masquerade as servants of righteousness bear the full brunt of his condemnation.

For most of us, hypocrisy brings to mind inconsistency or duplicity. A person says one thing but does another. But when Jesus describes hypocrisy, it’s the trait of those who play to the crowds. The sort of actors who search for human approval, wanting only to be seen. They don any mask that will give an audience what they want. Their self-worth is measured by what others think of them. Their chief goal is to be noticed, recognized, seen. In Matthew’s Gospel, hypocrites are those who blow a trumpet when they give alms, pray ostentatiously, and alter their appearance when fasting, all for one single reason: “in order that others will see them” (6:1).

A desire for attention typically tops the list of psychological and social motivations for people who habitually make up stories. Vice presidential candidate J. D. Vance showed off his playacting credentials in recent weeks by doubling down on his right to make up stories for the sake of garnering attention. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” he told a reporter. This stunning admission of a willingness to fabricate stories, with no felt obligation to tell the truth, came on the heels of his cruel rumor about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, abducting, cooking, and eating the pets of local residents.