Where one has a society where the majority value a particular dogma and where there yet is only a minority which is able to convey the values and guidance of that dogma, one may also recognize the existence of fertile grounds for the extortion of influence and wealth.
When the potter, the black smith, the farmer, the grocer, the merchant, the store keeper and the land owners, amongst others, lack the literacy or access to the records, those entrusted with their interpretation are more able to afford more liberal interpretations of those texts used to perpetuate the beliefs concerned. Such a closed circle could provide reasons for piety, including reward in the after-life for the generous or eternal damnation for the disobedient, or the provision of lucrative services of atonement for those fearful for their souls.
As literacy grew more widespread and as the demand for the texts themselves grew, so too did it then become necessary for those within the chosen circle of the few to reconcile the original texts with the dogma that they had been feeding the populace all this time. Texts for the literate came into being. Texts which told it as the chosen few wished it to be told. The power was perpetuated for a while longer as the chosen few ever so gradually scaled back upon the most objectionable elements. Events such as the Inquisition were left behind and put down to elements of corruption in the day, the abuse of the few - isolating within a time period the horrors of which fade as time goes by.
Yet the abuses continued in a more subtle fashion, wooing the living and the dieing with promises of the glorious afterlife which they professed to offer, guaranteed and sealed with the pledge of coin, land and prestige. The invasive feelers of the few could be felt manipulating on the level of State, those of certain political, religious, sexual or other leanings were excommunicated and refused a dignified burial, persecuted in life and in death for being what they were.
This of the same denomination that has been wanton to pass around a collection box, shaken for the compulsive effect it has, extorting the pious while at the same time publicly lamenting over reduced attendance of the repetitive propagandic machine of interpretation that would engulf and subdue all other viewpoints, given half a chance to do so.
This criticism does not begin and end with the Church of Christianity, of course. The decline of the Arab civilization since the 11th century could be attributed to a mechanization similar in motive, if not method. In either case, the point where religion becomes the basis of state is the point when state-initiated progress ends and it comes down to the individual entities to compensate and assume this responsibility.
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