[Conservative til I die]

1) Why use loaded words like 'beaureacracy?' Sounds to me like any hierarchical, organized body is a beaureacracy.

2) IMO, the idea that the Church is meant to be 1 billion little sub-churches (one for every believer and his bible) is sillier than thinking it's supposed to be one, visible body with a certain hierarchical structure.

3) I think your conclusion that the Church can't be what it says it is because it has pedophiles in it is specious at best. You're just using another buzzword of the day, no matter how true it may be. There are all kinds of sin other than buggering boys. Always has been. Instead of asking for divine control of the Church, you seem to be expecting divinity out of the hieararchy. Unfortunately, there are going to be bad eggs, some rotten. This is a Church of humans.

[donmeaker]

The point is, if G-d has a special place in his thought for the church, then he should intervene to prevent His Name from being sullied by perverts. If G-d does not, then He either has not the power, or He doesnt care about having His Name sullied by Perverts.

To disagree, you have to either find fault with the logic, or with the postulates. You are free to. The above works for me.

Bureaucracy was a great system when it was invented, but like many systems, over time it becomes complex and cumbersome. Catholicism being almost 1700 years old (no, St Paul nor Peter really established it but rather Constantine around 320CE) it is more complex and cumbersom than most.

If there was an all powerful G-d, then every little subchurch could get an email from G-d giving them their instructions for the day. It is the absense of communication from G-d that creates a niche for the bureaucrats.