There's a common thread through many subjects that I am interested in - religion, politics, inventions, economy: an original idea conceived with the interests of the many at heart. Unfortunately, with time and the failings of human nature, that idea across almost all topics has often been corrupted or eradicated beyond all recognition. There has to be some way of both recognising and impeding this process.
Christian religion began with a group of people who really did believe that Jesus was 'the anointed one', a claim that was punishable by death under then Judaic law if the pretender was not found 'fit' by the religious elders to fill the role of 'chosen by god' that was 'King' then. Jesus' "left wing" views were even more undesirable to the elders because the region, almost the Jewish people as a whole, were under the Roman boot (sandal) then; yet it is understandable that his teachings made a rather marked break with the tyranny of the times, almost as the 'hippy' movement was to the Vietnam war era. In any case, this movement preaching humility and peace had to spend its first years of existence in seclusion and hiding. The Christian doctrine in its first years followed Judaic law (Jesus in his entire lifetime had never a thought about starting a new religion), but the writ of Jesus' followers (real or 'spiritual'), and the follower's followers, soon became a sort of bible of their own. Jesus' reputation as a Ghandi-like resistant to the Roman occupier made stories of his life popular to an almost enslaved people; with this popularity came the corruption and the purposeful exploitation and misinterpretation of the original idea.
Even before the Christian religion had conquered a failing Rome seeking to regain the support of the already-converted masses, confusion had already set in. With the masses came political leadership, and the differing political views and motives of the christian leaders divided the faith into several factions: the Messianic Jews, for example, retained most everything from Judaic teachings in retaining their belief that Jesus was indeed the real messiah; Catholicism, the most aggressively political Christian faction, created a marked break with the rest of Christian teaching (while attempting to retain its followers) by adopting Mary Magdalene as the figurehead of their religion (although their real teachings, compared to those of Jesus' - hardly mention her). The latter faction was also responsible for effacing most every Pagan holiday under a 'new' Christian celebration (sometimes even blatantly 'invented' from other popular religions, such as the largely undocumented story of Jesus' birth being a carbon copy of that of Mythra - or even Moses'), and replacing every existing Pagan (or other) temple on Christian 'territory' with a temple or church.
I want to underline the fact that the source of the 'Christian fracture' was political motive, as was the corruption. Although many will contest the above (through 'deconstructionism' and arguments using selective facts), the pattern holds true to one recurring through all of humanity's history: the few leading (and reaping from) the many, and their efforts to keep their privileged position.
This tendency doesn't apply only to religion: once any sort of movement at all develops a leadership that depends (or counts on) those following a status quo of their dictate, and the leadership corrupts/perverts/adds to the the movement's original message to further their own ends, the idea behind the movement's origins take on much less importance. In fact, after a movement and its corrupted dogma conquers the majority of a society loathe to think outside of the status quo, any discussion about the 'original idea' hardly matters at all.
This leads in to economics. More later.
I'll add this here because it is in the same line with the rest - but it is a bit of a rant, as I was biting my tongue as I wrote the rest. I'd like to express my dismay - and disgust - that all that's done, 'positive' and negative, in religion's name.
First off, there are thousands of people today preaching exactly what Jesus did thousands of years ago. In fact, I'd say that most of his teachings are the moral status quo for most civilised society. Set that aside, and what do we have? Miracles. Miracles that are not only incredible (read the latter word in the "not credible" sense), but never seen by anyone but the most fervent of 'believers'. In short, religion today to most of us is as useful as a magician's mumbo-jumbo, as it might as well be all illusion.
So look at what is done in 'religion's name' today - persecution, wars and charity. Persecution and war are easy enough to condemn, but charity should be a much harder target to criticise - if it wasn't such a large source of income for many churches.
I of course subscribe to aiding the lesser privileged/resourced, but not if part of my donation will be taken as 'profit' - that is to say, for uses other than providing the resources needed to transfer/transform my donation into a place and form usable by the person I'd like to help. If any church takes part of a donation destined to an underprivileged one for funding the teaching/upkeep of their political domination, they are in fact exploiting the underprivileged, and treating them almost as hostages. This technique has been used many times in the past by many organisations, and condemned as the crime it is when discovered, but religion has been mysteriously exempt from a similar examination.
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