http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5-7%3A27... One part I have always found interesting is this: 5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. To me, that suggests that Christians ought to pray in private. But later on Jesus tells Peter to build a church. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. -Matthew 16:18 So, once again, you can take what you like. Catholics use this passage for the foundation of the Church, and the Pope. When you combine prevalent culture and political motivations with edits, translations, and the removal of entire books, it's not very difficult to see that the book can easily serve people, probably more easily than people can serve the book. IMHO it would be fascinating to see a group that lives by a literal (as possible) translation of the New Testament.
You really wanna see whackadoodledo, look at the history of the Book of Revelations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_revelation#Canonical_hi...