They are, in fact, the latter-day incarnation of the selfsame Pharisees against whom Jesus preached:

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

. . . for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.
Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

. . . for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

. . . Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”

—Matthew 23