The problem of religion isn't that it can be hijacked by spiritually corrupt men. I think the next statement:It's the religion itself. should be stated like this: it is also the religion itself. There is tremendous insight in Tom's statement. I think this statement summarizes all the good pints on which he has already commented.

The Christianity we have today is not the Christian religion of which history tells us. But I don't think the majority of Christians are aware of this fact. Maybe because God said "I change not" Christians came to believe that they should not change, thusly making no effort to change. (I don't want to raise the old question of whether or not God is the only absolute and does not change.)

True Christianity has outgrown the old model of history. Too many Christians have been too slow to reject the behaviors of past Christianity. Racial prejudice is an example that comes to mind. Slavery should have been abolished before 1865 as with many other behaviors. True Christians should have and did lead the charge in the abolition of such evils.

As man sees the model better, he needs to change to reflect the model. That's called walking in the light. Many churches are dominated by spiritually corrupt men. These men lust stayed there like frogs in slow to boil water unit they cooked to death without knowing it. Some have escaped, though, and are doing just fine.

I ignore burned frogs and admit the problem with religion as being unable to make religion relative to the present day. One of the recent threads here says "Christians scare me. I have not read that thread yet. But the author is talking about the old corrupt religion that has been stolen away. My religion is not like that.

I hope this helps