Consider your connection to this fallen entity, this vast governing world-historical body, this overgrown, outdated, ill-fated, scandal-plagued, tone-deaf bureaucracy otherwise known as "the hierarchy" - in the midst of its ongoing rearguard maneuvers, moving instinctively backward like crew members upon a sinking ship....consider your knowledge or lack of knowledge concerning this secret society and the internal workings of ecclesiastical power, consider the gossip and intrigue going back centuries, involving cardinals, arch-bishops and popes, the machinations among the higher-ups, the infighting, the pedigree of authority that (once) sets them on pedestals, giving them power to bind or unbind the sins of others, to instruct, prescribe, pronounce, uphold, prohibit etc. etc. - with unquestioned impunity - a circumstance presumably set in motion by the Founder himself (?) or his apostles (?) or the earliest of church fathers (?)... a structure that predates all of us, that operates and perpetuates itself as it goes with God's blessing (?), a trans-national institution that makes decisions without referendum or oversight, that evades and resists fundamental change and structural reform, that has excluded women and lay members from its ruling synods...that has always the entrenched look of aging ascetic masculinity touting self-denial, poverty, chastity, humility, mortification of the flesh... consider the mundane political dimensions of this enterprise, the ambitions of its members, the glamor, the prestige, the hidden wealth... imagine aspiring clerics looking for spiritual fiefdoms to govern over, intent upon climbing the ladder, trading ranks, dwelling in splendor and obscurity, indulging forbidden passions far from the reach of public scrutiny... consider such power unquestioned and unchecked except by outsiders (until now) accompanied by ancient pomp and ceremony (and for some the aura of godliness)...consider the churches, schools, monasteries, hospitals, cathedrals, seminaries, nunneries, the priceless art-works, the bank accounts, the real estate holdings unmatched by rival corporations, consider the global reach of this church into every corner of the planet...consider the history of such power-wielding, the concordats and treaties, the diplomacy, the official pronouncements, the faithful adherents, the cultural treasures, the art, the architecture, the ethical precepts, the saintly role models existing side by side with an array of hardened criminals ... consider the villains of this same institution and their misdeeds, the graft, theft, extortion, simony, corruption, crusades, inquisitions, forced interrogations, forced conversions, crimes covered up, explained away, forgotten, re-hashed, rationalized into oblivion....Think of the faith itself and its effects...its impact upon the world, upon the mind, the psyche of the believer, considers the coercive nature of belief itself...the indoctrination process......the fear of hell...the sense of guilt....the psychology of desire.....the anxieties of the flesh.... And has this religion improved us? And has this faith changed the world for the better? Has it made societies more just? And the hierarchy's role in all of this apart from believers acting at a grass-roots level? Is the world better off owing to this super-structure? Think about the motives of these clerics now under scrutiny - or rather - those posing-as-clerics, those who have sought out respectable frocks to cover their real intentions - consider their deeply-embedded cynicism, their shocking callousness, their contempt for the faithful, their mockery behind closed doors of the faith itself... their brazen disregard for common standards of morality....their lack of conscience...Think about the heinous acts of the criminal element within, the wolves posing as shepherds, the perverse soul-destroying abusers...so many predators who found a home within this enclave, able to prey upon the young without the slightest trace of guilt or shame...Think of all of those hidden machinations, the decisions made behind your back and without your consent.... Think of good souls overshadowed, disabled, rendered helpless, passive enablers, obliterated by the overwhelming number of free-roaming psychopaths... ....But even with all of this sordid history....even with the trauma of one scandal after another and the headlines that break out day after day concerning this diocese or that parish in such and such country....is this a structure that truly affects your life today on a daily basis, that guides your decision-making, that influences your own moral choices going forward...? Is this a hierarchy that occupies your thoughts or incites your curiosity? And if this vast brocade simply vanished overnight, how much would your life have been altered?
On a well-traveled corridor of the East coast - where tourists drive northward every summer on a sleepy (and sometimes dated) old thoroughfare that meanders (roughly speaking) with the shoreline - there lies a coastal village renowned for its posh homes and proud inhabitants - and at the center of this village which boasts of a main street, a historic library and a stately boat landing, a garden shop can be found nestled among costly domiciles - just a stone's throw from the private academy and the gourmet ice cream shop. Set upon five acres of serene commercial flatland - the property houses multiple plants and trees and flowers - providing an oasis of greenery for anyone conjuring up daydreams of bucolic bliss. Set apart from the store - a no-frills wooden edifice - were greenhouses, rows of plants and flowers, larger trees in back and an old modest mansion of a house - still occupied by the family, Estabrook, which had owned the place going back three (3) generations. Th...
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