Image Doctors (Acceptable Hypocrisy)

The week began with these words from the radio DJ: "A group of Fanshawe students is trying to improve the college's image." For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, this past St. Patrick's day, approximately 1,000 young people took to the streets. The event has caught the eye of news reporters the world over. I'm not here to condemn Fanshawe students. I'm a Fanshawe grad myself, as are my two sisters. Seeing as nobody was seriously hurt, I'm not going to rail at anybody at all. What struck me most about the DJ's statement, was that whoever this college image improvement group was, they had little care about the character of the people who set the town on fire, but were more concerned about the image of the college.


Image is pretty well everything in our culture. Character is nothing. We care more about how we are perceived by others, than we do about the true fabric of our person. I read an article on Yahoo this week outlining some of the biggest interview mistakes we sometimes make. Apparently, it's a mistake to be forthcoming about who you are.


What if you have serious authority issues? What do you really need; an image makeover?


Doctoring our image is merely an acceptable form of deception. As an interviewer, I have been so thankful in the past when people have been honest about who they were. I remember one man in particular.


"So Mr. Ed, why are you looking for work?"


Mr. Ed proceeded to tell me all of the things his horrible boss has asked him to do. In my mind, I found myself thinking, "Gee. Some of those things are stuff that I'll want him to do. What are the odds that he'll be happy to do them for me?"


So I thanked Mr. Ed for his time, shook his hand and sent him to his next interview.


How do you suppose our working relationship could have worked out, had he been hired? Have you ever entered into a relationship of any kind under pretense? It doesn't work well. Have you ever purchased a product that didn't do the things that it was advertised to do? How did you feel about it? It was kind of like being lied to.


I have no idea of what London's rioters were so angry at. Whatever the issues were, I'm quite certain they haven't been dealt with. I seriously doubt that their greatest need is a public relations spin. The passage that immediately came to my mind with regard to the image makeover was this one:


Luke 11:39
39 Then the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness!


The Pharisees take a lot of abuse in Christian circles, and rightly so. However, they aren't the only ones who are guilty of Christ's accusation. He was basically telling them, 'You're very concerned with looking good on the outside, but inside, you're filthy and wicked.' If our hearts are dirty, we've got bigger problems than simply a bad reputation.


If we were to look closely at the heart of London's rioters, maybe we're not so far off in some of our thinking. I don't know their hearts for sure, but there seems to be a growing segment of our world that resents authority. If that describes any of us, what place do we really have in society? Do you suppose that you'll be asked to manage Apple right out of college? And even if you land in the top spot, if we don't respect authority, what are the odds that we'll handle responsibility all that well? Taking the matter further, we're all accountable to someone else whether we like the idea or not.


If our hearts are rotten, dressing up for church or polishing our resume shouldn't even be on the agenda. For some reason, some forms of hypocrisy are quite acceptable, if not expected from us. We notice the church hypocrites, but fail to call out the Fanshawe Image Police or the resume doctors.


As for my thoughts on the riot. This probably won't be the last. If you follow popular culture, there is a blatant and growing disregard for the lives, property and integrity of others. What was once reserved for the punkish fringe, is becoming mainstream. Ask Green Day.