05.04.17 The 15th Driver of Negative Gossip : Hypocrisy
Simply put, a hypocrite refers to a person who pretends to be what she or he is not. Related to that is ‘backstabbing’ which involves deceiving or betraying a victim ‘behind the scenes’ with the intention of creating harm or exposing the person to danger, while pretending to be loyal and friendly on the cover. Hypocrisy is a common shortcoming amongst negative gossipers since it can drive a person to gossip against others in the effort of appearing ‘nice’ to everyone when such feelings are actually superficial.
In the story of Nehemiah, Eliashib comes across as a hypocrite. Whilst he was a high priest in the eyes of the Jewish community and the first to join Nehemiah’s effort to rebuild the wall on the one hand (Nehemiah 3:1), the man was nursing an enemy in his bosom at the same time, given the deep relationship with Tobiah, an Ammonite and a key opponent of the wall-rebuilding project. The connection was so deep as already explained, that Eliashib profaned the temple by accommodating Tobiah in one of the storerooms against God’s wishes as declared in Deuteronomy 23:3 which says (NKJV): 3“An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever,).
In the JuaLink story, Lulu’s hypocrisy came to the surface when she posed as Faraja‘s friend while scheming, undercover, to damage the publicity manager’s relationship with workmates. It was the publicity officer’s backstabbing disposition that prompted her to provoke Faraja and Neema to complain about Edisa Kitchens while recording the two women without their knowledge; when she knew fully well that she would be leaking that recording to Obed with the sole purpose of maligning the women’s relationship with the human resource officer.