I definitely agree in the modern day Pharisee. I guess that they have always existed and always will. I think that it was Luther who described the Christian life as being in a gutter trying to continually find a balance between the Law and legalism on the one side and disregard of the law on the other hand.
The Bible Belt and it would seem much of America was influenced by Revivalism and Wesleyan Christian Perfectionism and have never separated from the error. The Fundamentalist movement found the lowest common denominators remaining between the major denominations and dumbed down the rich history of the faith into something gutteral. The end result is moralistic therapeutic deism.
I know that you hold a different line than me on that but this is why I think theology matters. We are at a point where everything and anything is acceptable as long as someone mutters the name of Christ and a few religion cliches.
