How then does this religious "pride" reveal itself? Well, is it not "vanity" we see when a being claims that it is "saved", that it belongs to the "chosen children of God", that it feels it has been specially favoured by the Godhead and is therefore elevated above other beings that are outside the sect and have another religious attitude: the "damned" or those who walk the "wide road of sin"? Is it not "vanity" when the same being condemns other beings at great length and calls them the "eternally damned"? Is it not the same "vanity" we see when this being condemns other sects or religious communities and regards only the religious community to which it itself belongs as the "only salvation"?
      Here one would perhaps like to argue that these beings are misled by their community's particular religious view and attitude. They are the victims of the erroneous belief that those who will not join their community and submit themselves to this community's religious dogmas or attitudes are damned. This is, indeed, the case. They are victims of the particular sect's attitude, but why does this attitude appeal to precisely these people? Why are they happy being followers of this sect? Why is there not something in them that reacts to the thought that some people should be "damned" while they themselves are specially chosen or favoured by the Godhead? Is it not just because this thought, this religious attitude suits them very well? It is completely in harmony with how they most want things to be. They do not at all see anything unjust in the thought that their "neighbour" could be "damned for all eternity" and tormented in "hell" while they themselves – not even through their own doing but out of "grace" – have been specially favoured by Providence or the Godhead and shall for all eternity experience boundless, radiating happiness. Is it not just the same tendency or rather the same principle as that which fills the "rich man", the "man of fashion", the "pampered woman", the "zoot suiter" and so on? Is this not the same joy and satisfaction at not being like the others, but being "finer" and "more cultivated", being one of the "saved", which in this case means the "upper class"? Which of these types is the least "pharisaical"? Does one believe that one is nearer the "kingdom of heaven" merely by replacing the concept of the "upper class" with the concept of the "saved" and by replacing the rich man's extravagant whims of fashion and any other way of presenting a "fake, artificial upper class" with a kind of religious form of "zoot suit"? Does walking along the highways and byways regarding oneself as "elevated" above others, the "infidels" and the "ungodly", imagining that one is one of God's specially chosen people and one of the beings that has been "saved" from "sin" merely because one has this or that kind of religious attitude or a "membership card" to this or that religious movement make one more angelic, or does walking along the same highways and byways feeling that one is elevated above most of one's fellow beings and at best condescendingly looking down on the "proletariat" or people at work or in working clothes merely because one is oneself wearing a riding habit and sitting on horseback or sitting in a luxurious car or in other equipment that "plays the part" while introducing exaggerated whims of fashion and zoot suits make one more angelic? Indeed, the "Pharisees" and tax collectors are more alive today than ever. The "whited sepulchers", the contents of which are "dead bones and all uncleanness", are the world redeemer's cosmic analysis of "pride" or the contrast to "humility".