In chapter 5, Scout is sitting on Maudie's porch having a discussion when Scout inquires about Boo Radley . Miss Maudie explains to Scout that Boo was a kind child and informs Scout that Boo's father was a foot-washing Baptist. Miss Maudie elaborates by telling Scout that foot-washers consider...
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any type of pleasure to be a sin. Maudie mentions that foot-washing Baptists even criticize her for working in her garden and believe that women are a sin by nature. In an attempt to explain religious fanaticism to Scout, Maudie says,
"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" (Lee, 46).
Essentially, Miss Maudie believes that foot-washing Baptists like Mr. Radley are so strict and self-righteous that they end up not getting along with anyone because they are too concerned about their own salvation. Religious fanatics like Mr. Radley have an adverse affect on those around them, which is why Boo has been kept inside his home for all these years.
To explain a little further, people such as the "foot-washing Baptists" are so concerned about going to Heaven, they don't behave the way they should on earth. Such religious people don't live what they preach. They say they are religious and have no problem telling others how they should live, but in the process they forget to follow their own advice. Miss Maudie feels while living on earth, a person should show his/her humanity by being kind to others and setting a good example for others to follow. She is also referring to people who are hypocrites, those people who tell others what is right or wrong, but they don't live that way themselves.
Scout is doing her best to get some information about Boo Radley from Miss Maudie in Chapter 5 of To Kill a Mockingbird. Miss Maudie dodges the subject somewhat, but when Scout presses her, Maudie tells her about Boo's father, a "foot-washing Baptist"--a primitive Baptist who takes the Bible literally. Maudie tries to explain old Mr. Radley's actions by comparing him to Atticus.
"... sometime the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than whiskey in the hand of--oh, your father."
Scout didn't understand the comparison, reminding her that Atticus didn't drink, which prompted a laugh from Miss Maudie. Maudie was trying to explain that
"... 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 other words, a drunken Atticus Finch was a better, kinder and more loving man than old Mr. Radley ever would be.