Neo-Pharisees

We went to church last night and I was struck by the Ash Wednesday gospel reading, from Luke 18:

To some who were confident in their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'  But the tax collector stood at a distance.  He would not even look up at heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'  I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

As a little exercise, I substituted names of people associated with the Christian Right for the word "Pharisee" in the above reading (with appropriate gender modifications).  Sarah Palin, Franklin Graham, Michele Bachmann, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and Rick Santorum are just a few examples.  I was amazed at how accurately this parable describes the Christian Right.  They are the Neo-Pharisees of the 21st century.  They have chosen the self-righteous hubris of the Pharisee instead of the humility of the tax collector.