There is, after all, a reason why Christ was so harsh towards the Pharisees (and law-based faith in general). Because, a Pharisee-like faith is destructive towards everything and everyone it gets its dirty paws on.
Personally, I've yet to see a street-preacher or some other religious recruiter perched outside a busy public place, bring someone to faith. I've yet to see a public display of fervent prayer underneath a flagpole encourage someone wrestling with God. I've yet to feel the Holy Spirit whenever I come across a mob of Christians protesting outside abortion clinics or hospitals overwhelmed with Covid patients. If anything, I find that type of behavior rather repulsive. Always have, actually. I just could never really put my finger on it until I read the Gospel according to Matthew, specifically chapters six and seven.
Yet, few churches I've heard (and basically none that I've been to in-person), have touched Matthew six and seven with a ten-foot pole. Perhaps, I just wasn't at some churches when they did, indeed, have a sermon on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. But, there are a handful of churches I recall going to that seemed to be actively avoiding Jesus' condemnations of Pharisee-like behavior. Because, well, it went against the church's personal ideologies, and I find that tremendously depressing and angering.
Even more upsetting, is that so many of those churches go after their quietest members. I experienced this quite a bit in my private Christian school. Because I wasn't loud and open about the little faith I had, some of my peers and teachers were certain that I had no faith at all. They, unfortunately, weren't scared to point it out.
They were also really good at making the Bible say what they wanted it to say. Every week, they had us memorize and recite different passages from the Bible. But, let's just say my teachers used ellipses very liberally. They avoided passages in the Psalms that raked God over the coals, only going over the verses in those Psalms that were more or less sarcastically praising God (Psalm 89 comes to mind), as though the writers for those Psalms were genuinely praising God.
The one time we, as a class, read a Bible story in its entirety (the one where Jacob wrestled with God), I literally saw my teacher's face go white when I asked her something like, "Hey, isn't this story encouraging us to question and argue with God?"
"Oh, that's not the important part of this story, here." I remember her snapping at me, "The important part is that Jacob, now called Israel, remained faithful to God all his life, never straying from his faith."
I think we went back-and-fourth a bit more, but I can't remember what else was said. All that I remember is feeling very flustered after that little exchange, knowing I'd have to put up with their bullshit till the end of the school year. And, just for reference, this little argument took place the very first week of tenth grade.
