Some words fall into the mud puddle, are never cleaned off, and become permanently tarnished by the mud that was never removed. Piety is such a word. Think about the way you have heard it used. Usually it has a pejorative taint to it. 

Bishop Spong of the Episcopal Church has certainly caught religious people's attention. The bishop was interviewed recently and spoke of how he didn't much like religious people. He went on to say that he often finds them petty, small-minded, and prejudiced. Those are precisely the kind of people who come to mind when we think of folks who are pious. You have met them and so have I. Thomas Merton once referred to them as "plaster saints."  Happily, not all church people are like that, but enough of them are, enough of the time, to warrant attention. Obvious…