They confuse arrogance, conceit, and false confidence, for sincerity and wisdom.

I had already left the SGI for about 6 months or a year in 1996 but I had not left all my SGI baggage behind. My very sincere wife [who is alive today because we left the SGI] bought a beautiful statue of Shakyamuni Buddha in Chinatown. She was so proud of her find. The moment I saw it, I freaked. I told my wife in no uncertain terms that she would have to throw out the statue as we couldn't have it in the house. I told her to give me the statue and I would dispose of it. She immediately grabbed the statue and carried it around like a baby for half a day. A few days later I learned that many Nichiren sects have statues of Shakyamuni Buddha either enshrined with the Gohonzon or by themselves. It has been inside my altar since then. Subsequently I learned that Nichiren carried around a statue of Shakyamuni Buddha for nearly 20 years until his death which he even enshrined and prayed to when he was in exile. Also, Nichiren himself taught in his second most important treatise that attachments are bad, even attachments to the Perfect Teaching of the Lotus Sutra. The SGI mentor and leaders only get away with their BS teachings because the low life conditioned and unlearned members take their arrogance, conceit, and false confidence, for sincerity and wisdom.