What do you get when you cross a litmus test and a paper tiger?

A litmus test is a test that relies on a single indicator. The term originates with litmus paper which turns red in acid and blue in alkaline solutions.

A paper tiger is a person or institution that seems powerful but is in fact weak and ineffectual..

A litmus paper tiger therefore is someone who claims to make decisions based on a single overarching principle but doesn’t really—a hypocrite of a certain stripe, one who grandstands about his powerful all- determining rule but in practice employs it selectively.

The litmus paper tiger’s strategy is a natural, common response to the challenge of tough decisions. Life is experienced in shades of gray but must often be lived in black and white. The simplest way to reconcile an ambivalent gut with a need to feel decisive is to simply declare oneself decisive, even if one is not.

Consistency is costly. Giving oneself the impression of consistency is a bargain by comparison. It requires consistency on only one small thing-an unwavering conviction that one is being consistent. With enough wordplay any of us can dress up our mercurial choices as being true to sacred absolutist guiding principles. Pseudo-certitude frees us to have our cake and eat it too.

Religious Scholar Karen Armstrong argues that this approach is fundamental to all institutional religions. They claim that their values and methods are consistent over centuries even though their histories prove otherwise.