Is Hypocricy a Sin?

I was reading the blog on Americans United for Separation of Church and State today, as I am wont to do. This could be an organization that I decide to join shortly in the future, as I agree with its core tenet - that the government and religion need to be kept apart to as great a degree as possible.

At any rate, one thing I was reading was this blog post regarding Pat Robertson and what can best be described as hypocrisy. I'm no fan of Robertson, and I haven't been since about 1982 when he told me that there was no such thing as Santa Claus, but I digress. You see, Pat Robertson has railed against the concept of the "Wall of Separation" between church and state (this is a line uttered by Thomas Jefferson regarding the purpose of the First Amendment, and used by the Supreme Court in McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203, 211 (1948)). He has denounced this concept publicly as recently as 2002 (see link above), and his legal staff has referred to the concept as a "guise" to strip Constitutional protections away from Christians (id).

Apparently, however, Pat Robertson and company believe it is a guise, it is one that they feel entitled to embrace, when it suits them. Recently, several parishioners of a Baptist Church in Tennessee (which held a rally arguing that Supreme Court justices should rely on the Bible in reaching their opinions) have filed suit against the Reverend of the Church, arguing that he "is authoritarian and misused church funds to pay for personal travel and his daughter's wedding reception." The dissident apparently demanded access to church records and were denied, so they sued. The ACLJ (a legal group founded by Robertson) is representing the Reverend, and is raising as a defense the argument of Separation of Church and State.

I don't see why Robertson's team doesn't just release the records. I mean, if the guy has done nothing wrong, then he has nothing to worry about. Maybe the dissidents should get in touch with the FBI - I wonder if the USA PATRIOT Act hasn't yet been too chiseled away by those activist judges in Oregon to be of some use here. Wait, never mind. This is a Baptist Church, not a Muslim Mosque, so they can't be bad.

All snark aside, this reeks of hypocrisy, and Robertson and company should be ashamed.