The Shepherdsons and the Grangerfords are two Southern families involved in a deadly feud, similar to the one that divides the Montagues and Capulets in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Though initially impressed with the vast wealth and beauty of the Grangerford estate, Huck comes to have second thoughts about this gracious and hospitable family because of their violent hatred toward the Grangerfords.

The two families show their religious hypocrisy first by going to church and listening to the preacher talk about brotherly love and kindness. Second, and worse, they go to church and hold their loaded guns between their knees, presumably so they can blow each other's heads off at a moment's notice—even in a church.

Hypocrisy is pretending to uphold moral or ethical standards that you don't follow in your real life. It's talking the talk, not walking the walk. The Shepherdsons and Grangerfords certainly don't practice the Christianity they pretend to believe in when they go to church every Sunday. Their religion is centrally focused on love, peace, and forgiveness, but what they practice is hate, vengeance, and violence. The gap between what they say they believe and what they do couldn't be wider.