A friend of mine recently wrote on her Facebook page:  “Dear boy scout leaders, priests, teachers, coaches, dentists, and any other occupations pedophiles hide behind . . . stop raping our kids.”  There certainly are enough examples of people not only taking advantage of their positions (in all variety of ways) but actually engaging in behaviors that are completely contradictory to the values, ethics, principles, goals, and/or oaths of their respective professions.  When this happens, people tend to experience both the usual disdain for the inappropriate behavior and an added sense of disgust that is tied to the violation of the trust that they placed in the individual as a member of a particular profession.

Let’s face it.  We have expectations of people, and often those expectations reflect our understanding of their work roles.  Many of us have sinned, broken laws, and harmed others in one fashion or another.  Nevertheless, we expect the sins of priests to be significantly fewer in number and much less abhorrent than the sins of the general public.  We expect police officers, legislators, and judges to uphold our laws.  We expect childcare providers to protect and to take good care of our children.  We expect members of the multitude of helping professions to support, nurture, and facilitate growth and healing in those in need of assistance.  In short, we seem to feel pretty strongly that people should practice what they preach.

And what does it mean when professionals don’t practice what they preach?  Well, it could mean that:

1. They aren’t willing to stand up for their convictions.  But if they aren’t willing to do so, who are they to expect anybody else to do so?  Don’t they automatically lose credibility in this scenario?
2. They actually don’t value the principles that they purport to hold, which immediately makes them suspect and untrustworthy.  If they don’t support the ethics of their profession, aren’t they just impostors?  And then don’t we need to worry about what they are getting out of being an impostor in a particular profession?
3. They believe that they are exempt from upholding certain standards and that others are not exempt.  Maybe there is a legitimately good reason why a person is exempt from a specific rule, but usually this kind of thinking is the result of someone seeing others as less than the way they see themselves.  Now doesn’t that raise some red flags?

When people display professional hypocrisy, they are abusing the power of their position or status.  They do what they do simply because they can.  Sometimes this behavior has legal implications, but often the abuse of one’s position, while contemptible, is not illegal.

We really need to be clear about our own principles and to consistently uphold our convictions.  We must understand our own power and ensure that we are not abusing the power that comes with our professional roles.  We have to recognize when others are violating professional ethics and be willing to speak up.  If we all do this consistently, fewer and fewer professionals will be able to abuse their positions, our children, and the rest of us.