I recently heard a powerful teaching from a Jewish Rabbi named Meir Schweiger on the subject of how righteousness can be in opposition of being upright. Righteous is the desire to live according to God's standard as His child. Being upright is to be concerned with the continued existence of the world. According to R. Meir Schweiger, to seek after righteousness can lead to being self-righteous, therefore, to seek after holiness (godliness) can be detrimental to a believer when that same person does not live upright and care as much about others as he or she does about his or her own righteous living.
How does this theory of theological significance affect the current holiness movement of many denominations?
I think this ties in with your "flyswatter gal" story and observation that Christ didn't raise His own flyswatter against 'ordinary' sinners - just those who overbearingly held themselves out as masters of righteousness.
It's hard to picture Christ as railing against various "abominators" but he didn't seem very accepting or loving when He referred to some Pharisees as a "brood of vipers."
Walker, I am absolutely overjoyed with the fact that you said, "He referred to 'some' Pharisees..." That is a crucial point. Not all Pharisees were self-righteous. In fact, it was the Pharisees who were the evangelists of the first century. They reached out to bring others into the Kingdom of God. And some of them were obviously self-righteous traditionalists who believed that a person had to be just like them to be accepted by the God that they were so perfect at modeling (I hope the sarcasm is obvious).
It was the righteous only that Jesus was frustrated with. Some great points that are brought up in my latest podcast come from the teachings of R. Meir Schweiger and have to do with the reason God destroyed the second Temple and allowed so many Jews to be destroyed along with it. According to a Jewish commentary, God destroyed the second Temple and the Jews of that time because even though they sought after holy living, they didn't love each other. And according to another ancient rabbinic source, God separated the people of Babel but didn't destroy them because, though they mocked God, they loved one another.
For many, the search for holiness can lead to self-righteousness. That is a dangerous place to be in the eyes of God. Caring for others must always be a priority. "Love God with all your heart, soul, and strength, AND love your neighbor as yourself."