Religion breeds hypocrisy

When I was an evangelist, one of the things I noticed from my fellow believers is the level of hypocrisy that was prevalent amongst them. I found that many were one person in the church and a completely different person in their homes. Most of the time that other personality they displayed outside the congregation was the total opposite of what we saw in church, where they were at their best behavior.

Christians in particular suffer from a horrible psychological compulsion called "cherry picking" as in picking and choosing what to believe and follow from their so called sacred text, the bible. Most will choose only those verses of scripture that favor their individual situations. Those other verses of scripture that condemn some of their actions and personal beliefs are ignored or discarded from their minds completely.

I've learned through experience that if you want to be a successful evangelist, that you should preach only those things that the people want to hear. I of course did not, and thus I was never really a successful evangelist in the sense of having thousands of groveling miracle mongers chasing me all  around the religious community. I refused to preach platitudes I preached very harsh sermons and at times they did not go over very well with the masses.

People who preach that the church is blessed, that they have been chosen by god to lead this world out of darkness, that they will prosper beyond their wildest dreams both in this life and the next will surely be well liked and followed. The secret to success in any growing ministry is to tell the people what they want to hear, make them feel like they are on the right side of god.

If you but spent a day in a large congregation and opened your ears to everyone's conversations you would be floored at the amount of gossip that prevails in those so called holy settings. Christians don't only condemn the world at large, they criticize, judge, and condemn each other as well. They talk about the pastor, the brother that wears the same clothes every day, the sister at the pew etc. If this is what heaven is like then I have to say no thank  you, I prefer to live this life and perish into nothingness when my time is up.

Jesus supposedly made the following statement in regards to the Scribes and the Pharisees, but I think that it is just as applicable to today's church as well.
"He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me."                Mark 7:6