The Christians I know behave worse than my non-religious friends, and it is putting me off the whole thing. How do I get past that?

“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.”

Ezekiel was a priest deported to Babylon, writing to exiles whose leaders had failed them catastrophically. This oracle is aimed at Israel's shepherds, meaning its religious and political leadership, and it is brutal. God takes the failures of his own representatives more seriously than any outside critic does, and the chapter ends with him announcing that he will do the job himself.

“Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.”

Jesus says this publicly in Jerusalem, days before his arrest, about the most respected religious figures of his day. He tells the crowd to separate what is taught from how the teachers actually live. It is an unusually practical instruction, and it assumes that hypocrisy inside religious institutions is a permanent hazard rather than a shocking exception.