Is Organized Religion Evil?

Not per se. God is a wonderful being. To believe in God is a wonderful thing. To wonder about God is wonderful. The organized church is not so wonderful a lot of times. That doesn't mean it needs to be done away with. Any organization starts going downhill the moment it is created. It is up to the people of that organization to build it up more than it is torn down. Two major organizations that come to my mind are NOW and the NAACP. Both of these organizations had aspirations and lofty goals and were also wonderful when they began. Unfortunately, organizations have to have the means to function and attaining their needs sometimes causes the organizations to lose their sense of direction. NOW has certainly lost theirs. Churches also do this. My belief is that churches should be local just as government should. If they need help they can call neighboring churches. But don't join up with 5,000 churches and have a head office. That's the beginning of the end. Certain people love power and will do a lot of acting and lying to get it. From a distance they may seem to be doing well but things are prone to happen behind the backs of the people. How about those Crusades? How about the radical Muslim leaders? The American government, as well, was set up to honor local governance. The federal government wasn't supposed to do much - protect us from foreign countries and settle disputes between states and commonwealths and ... oh, that's about it - but look at the American government now. It's absolutely nothing like it began. This is not progress. It is loss of liberty. The American government should go back to its roots and let the states and counties and cities decide their matters. In the same manner, the little country church outside of town shouldn't be regulated and taxed by the home office. This takes a lot out of the entity of a neighborhood, friendly, free church where people are supposed to come together for one purpose - to be thankful to God, not to see what they can get. Nothing is wrong with a little bit of organization. It should be limited, though. The rest is about trust and relationship.