Miss Maudie is trying to explain that Boo Radley's father's idea of religion is just as destructive of family life as alcoholism. She says that some kinds of Christians--she calls them "footwashers--" are overly concerned with sin. They equate any kind of pleasure with sin, and they also equate being a woman with being sinful. This kind of judgmental, hard, joy-killing faith destroys people's spirits, including the spirit of a child raised in that kind of environment.

Miss Maudie then states that a Bible in one person's hand is worse than a whiskey bottle in another person's hand--such as Atticus's. When Scout doesn't understand, Miss Maudie goes on to explain that even if Atticus were to get very drunk on a bottle of whiskey, he still wouldn't be as mean as some people are while sober. Some men, Miss Maudie says, are naturally hard and are made harder by religion. They are so worried about who is going to heaven and hell that they don't learn how to live in this world. When she refers to looking down the street and seeing the results, she is talking about the Radley family. As she puts it:

What I meant was, if Atticus Finch drank until he was drunk he wouldn’t be as hard as some men are at their best. There are just some kind of men who—who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.

Miss Maudie means that it is the person using a substance that matters, not the substance itself. The Bible, usually seen as a positive moral force, can become a force for evil in the wrong hands. Likewise, whiskey, often seen as evil force driving people to drunkenness, won't be as damaging if consumed by an ethical man like Atticus.

In Chapter 5, Miss Maudie is explaining to Scout why Boo Radley never leaves his home. Maudie tells Scout that Arthur was a friendly boy whose father was a "foot-washing Baptist." She goes on to explain that Mr. Radley believed that any type of pleasure was a sin and that he followed a strict interpretation of the Bible. Miss Maudie makes the comment, "but sometimes a Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of---oh, of your father" (Lee 60). Scout is offended and comments that Atticus never drank alcohol in his life. Scout is too young to understand Maudie's analogy and takes her statement literally. Maudie was trying to compare the way Mr. Radley misuses the Bible to harm his son and other members of the community to the way alcohol destroys families. Distorting religion and misusing the Bible can be very harmful. Mr. Radley perverts scripture by taking certain passages and applying them literally. Maudie uses the example that "foot-washers" believe that women are a sin by definition to explain their twisted interpretation.

Miss Maudie is making a clear distinction between a good man (i. e. Atticus) and a bad man who professes to be good (Mr. Radley). Miss Maudie claims that Mr. Radley is a foot-washing Baptist. In other words, he is very strict and takes the Bible literally. Miss Maudie adds that foot-washers believe that anything that is a pleasure is a sin. Consider Arthur/Boo Radley's life in such a house. Mr. Radley professes that he is a man of God. Apparently, he was so strict that he drew all the joy out of Arthur's childhood and subsequent life.

Even if Atticus were a stumbling drunk, he would still be a better man than Mr. Radley. Atticus doesn't need to show off his Biblical knowledge nor does he need to prove himself as a spiritual beacon. His character is shown by how he lives. He constantly thinks about other people. He is always looking at the world through the eyes of others in attempts to understand, empathize, and help. Mr. Radley, religious as he may be, never really does this with his son. In short, a hypothetically drunken Atticus is always better than a sober Mr. Radley.

In a later chapter, the women of the Missionary Society claim that they support the Mrunas but they aim to keep the black citizens of Maycomb in their subservient place. Using Miss Maudie's logic here, a drunken Miss Maudie is always better than these hypocrites. Although this goes beyond the context of that conversation between Scout and Miss Maudie, the point is the same.

Miss Maudie means that the Bible can be harmful when someone uses its content for evil. Even though the Bible is meant to inspire hope and love in modern Christian theology, people can twist its words in a negative way and use it to justify negative actions. Alcohol, on the other hand, was often seen as a negative; but it is all about the person using it, Miss Maudie says.

Miss Maudie is explaining to Scout what she knows about the Radley family. Scout is curious about Arthur "Boo" Radley, a shut-in who Scout, Jem, and Dill wonder about all summer. Miss Maudie knew him as a child and explains that his family was very religious. They belonged to a type of Baptist group that Miss Maudie calls "foot-washing Baptists." They believed that every type of pleasure was sinful. 

Miss Maudie tells Scout:

"Wasn’t talking about your father," she said. "What I meant was, if Atticus Finch drank until he was drunk he wouldn’t be as hard as some men are at their best. There are just some kind of men who—who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results."

In this way, she is explaining how Boo Radley's father twisted the Bible's messages and made his home a sad one.

In Chapter Five of To Kill a Mockingbird, Miss Maudie Atkinson--a widow and talented gardener--tells Scout about Boo Radley, who she claims is still alive and who is simply a victim of a "foot-washing" Baptist upbringing. Scout inquires what this means and Miss Maudie explains that "foot-washers" believe that any pursuit of pleasure is a sin, giving the example of the group of religious fanatics who had claimed that Miss Maudie and her flowers were going to hell. Although she has no idea why Arthur Radley has kept Boo hidden away in the house, she believes that his religious convictions have something to do with it. 

Miss Maudie then explains that, "sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse that a whiskey bottle in the hand of--oh, of your father." Scout protests that her father doesn't drink. Miss Maudie then clarifies that there are "some kind of men... who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one." 

What Miss Maudie is getting at here is that extremism--even of such theoretically "good" things as the Bible--is dangerous and can lead to terrible outcomes. The "good" text of a Bible in the hands of a "foot washer" is worst than the "bad" presence of alcohol in the hand of a good man like Atticus. 

A little context is important to understand this quote. 

Miss Maudie and Scout are talking about the children's obsession with Boo Radley. The topic of Mr. Radley comes up and Miss Maudie says that Mr. Radley was a "foot-washing Baptist." Her point is that Mr. Radley was too religious. Scout is confused at this point. Wasn't Miss Maudie a Baptist also? Miss Maudie says that she is a Baptist, but not a foot-washing baptist. In other words, her religious beliefs were moderate and not excessive. 

Here is where your quotes comes in. Miss Maudie likens religious fanaticism to alcoholism. In fact, alcoholism is better than being too religious. And in the end, both are destructive. 

Mr. Radley's problem is that he took the bible too literally and because of this, he ruined his family life. Later we learn that Boo was a casualty of this kind of excessive religious life. 

In this statement, Miss Maudie is making a comment on some of the "Bible thumpers" in town who use the Bible to criticize, condemn, and punish those around them.  Specifically, she is thinking of the "foot-washing Baptists," a particularly strict sect in Maycomb, and the ways she has seen them misuse the Bible for their own aims - hurting others in the process.

Miss Maudie herself has come under their condemnation for spending too much time in her garden.  According to them, "anything that's pleasurable is a sin," and she should be spending more time studying her Bible.  Scout finds this criticism rather surprising since Miss Maudie can quote the Bible very well and clearly knows her scriptures.  She also is the kindest neighbor to the children and certainly seems to understand the concept of showing Christian love to others more than the footwashers or the gossiping Miss Stephanie do.

However, Miss Maudie is especially thinking about Arthur "Boo" Radley when she says this.  She recalls him being a polite young man, and she thinks it's very sad to see what has happened to him as a result of his parents' strict religious beliefs.  When he got into trouble with his "gang" many years before, the others boys were sent to reform school, but Arthur's father took it upon himself to punish his son in his own way: with a kind of "house arrest" that isolated his son from everyone in town and kept him from any forms of misbehavior, but also any forms of pleasure or social interaction.  Over the years, "Boo" developed into the social recluse he now is, fearful of people and society and afraid to venture out of his house.

While clearly "whiskey" in the hands of the wrong man, such as Bob Ewell, can be a terrible thing - and leads to all sorts of evil in this book - Maudie recognizes that in many cases, Bible thumping can be worse than whiskey in destroying the lives of those in its wake.

Miss Maudie's remark to the children in Chapter 5 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird refers to the fundamentalists-the "foot-washers," who drive past her place castigating her for her abundant flowers.  According to Miss Maudie, the foot-washers thought that she spent too much time outdoors and not enough inside the house reading the Bible.

When Scout remarks that Miss Maudie is the "best lady" she knows, and wonders why Mr. Arthur does not come outside, too, if he were "hankerin' after heaven," Miss Maudie interjects that Scout is too young to understand.  But, some people take things to extremes, thus making something intended as good into evil.  By taking the Bible literally people misuse scripture and sometimes make it fit their own twisted intentions.  This perversion of the words of the Bible is worse than whisky in Atticus's possession--it does more harm.  For, they take the word of God and make it serve their purposes; for example, the "foot-washers" think that women are a sin by definition, Miss Maudie says.  Taking the Bible literally, these people see all women as Eves and other people as threats, possibly.  Arthur Radley is kept inside the house because Nathan Radley, Arthur's guardian and brother, does not allow him to go outdoors.

To understand what Miss Maudie means, let's look at the context of their conversation.

Scout and Jem are talking with her, a lady whom Scout describes as a trusted, intelligent adult:

"Jem and I had considerable faith in Miss Maudie. She had never told on us, had never played cat-and-mouse with us, she was not at all interested in our private lives. She was our friend."

The kids are trying to understand why Boo always stays inside his house, and Miss Maudie is trying to explain. She starts by mentioning that Boo's father was "a foot-washing Baptist," meaning someone who's so religious that they take everything from the Bible as literally true, and they think anything fun at all is a sin--like planting flowers instead of sitting inside to read the Bible. They even think women are sinful just because they're women.

That's when Miss Maudie delivers the line about the Bible being something destructive when one person uses it--more destructive than alcohol when someone else drinks it.

What she means is that some people use the Bible not as a way to gain wisdom and understanding, but as a weapon to restrict people's lives and demand that they act a certain way. Miss Maudie seems to be hinting that Boo's father was that zealous about his religion, and as a result he was so demanding about the things Boo could and couldn't do, that Boo felt immobilized (frozen) and suffered some kind of mental damage that resulted in him staying inside his house all the time.

Miss Maudie was trying to be clear when she said that the Bible was worse when one man wields it compared to if Atticus were to drink alcohol--she was trying to explain that religion, improperly interpreted and forced on someone, can be worse than if someone just gets drunk and treats people terribly or violently. But the kids don't really understand the comparison; they get stuck on thinking about how their father doesn't actually drink.

Miss Maudie says this in Chapter 5.

What she is saying is that religion makes people do worse things than whiskey.  At least, she is saying it is possible for that to happen, depending on the person doing the drinking.

Specifically, she is referring to Arthur Radley.  She says that he has let religion warp his life, basically.

She says that, by contrast, Atticus could get drunk and still be a good man.  So she is saying that some people can be corrupted and warped by religion just as much as others can by alcohol.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, what is the significance of the statement, "but sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of—oh, of your father"?

In Chapter 5, Miss Maudie is having a conversation with Scout regarding Boo Radley's past and family background. Miss Maudie explains to Scout that Mr. Radley was a very strict individual, and was a "foot-washing Baptist" (Lee 59). Maudie tells Scout that "foot-washing Baptists" believe that women are a sin by nature and that anything that people take pleasure in is considered a sin. Maudie also tells Scout that Mr. Radley took the Bible literally. She attempts to use the following analogy to explain to Scout that people can use the Bible to support their negative beliefs by saying, "but sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of---oh, of your father" (Lee 60). Scout is too young and naive to understand Maudie's analogy. Maudie is trying to convey that fact that some people misinterpret the Bible and use the scriptures to support their intolerant and ignorant beliefs. In Mr. Radley's case, he interpreted the Bible literally to keep Boo Radley inside of the house and away from the public. His decision to shelter his son negatively affected Boo Radley's life, similar to the way alcohol can negatively affect a person's well-being.