The Washington National Cathedral, photographed by Jonathan Newton-- The Washington Post

It’s the economy, stupid . . .

Big Businesses famously roll on in this country because we’re scared of letting them fail. And if there truly is an American business that’s too big to send swirling down the economy’s drain, it’s the Organized Religion Industry (O.R.I). For an industry of which the major American branch (Christianity) uses as its mission statement the anti-materialist words of a poor carpenter, the O.R.I has done all right in the rapacious fray known as the American economy.

Think about it. In real estate alone, the O.R.I. controls gazillions of dollars. And it’s not just property ownership that has economically entrenched the Organized Religion Industry in America; it’s all the jobs attached to that property. Not to mention all the auxiliary economic activities generated by what goes on in O.R.I.-owned buildings, all the training facilities for the people who run these activities, all the people employed by the hierarchical institutions who decide what these activities should be.  . . . (read more of what Martha has to say in case you’re interested)