Hypocrisy is a form of faking and acting; you become the main character of a situation you are trying to hide. Hypocrisy is not a good thing; you become cynical and start affecting others only to save yourself. There is a very interesting quote by Alan Dershowitz, which says, "Hypocrisy is not a way of getting back to the moral high ground. Pretending you're moral, saying your moral is not the same as acting morally"; in few words it is trying to tell us "practice what you preach". And "In Westminster Abbey" by John Betjeman hypocrisy is one of the main subjects. .
John Betjeman's poem "In Westminster Abbey" is set in the beginning of World War II in Great Britain. And it starts with a woman who seems to be from the upper class, entering Westminster Abbey, which is a place associated to coronations and Royal ceremonies, so she can pray. John Betjeman poem is suggestive in a way; the woman is depicted as a very racist one, and with the words the author uses in the prayer of the woman "Gracious Lord, oh bomb the Germans" she is asking the Lord to bomb Germany in order to help England win the war and keep her safe and in exchange she will do something for the church and obey their orders, and this is where the reader can recognize the woman is a hypocrite. She first prays for her country but then it is noticeable that her main concern is herself, all her belongings and somehow her social status too. .
As the poem goes on, racism becomes more evident, especially in the third stanza, which lines portray her as an intolerant person when she is asking God to protect all of Britain's colonies including "Gallant blacks from far Jamaica,.
Honduras and Togoland" and while these words seem kind she then asks God to protect even more the whites. .
