I am not sure to what you are referring. Jesus said He would send the Spirit to all believers and that He would "teach us all things". I presume that includes scripture interpretation.
It makes perfect sense to have an heriarchy.
Having a "leadership" is not necessarily problematic. We have a leadership in my church. The problem comes in when they assert extra-scriptural powers and put themselves on a par with scripture itself.
Think of the perversion of the truth that would take place if any Joe Sixpack could jump in some water, declare himself saved and start his own congregation; JUST THIS HAS HAPPENED MANY TIMES IN PROTESTANTISM'S SHORT HISTORY.
So your conclusion then is that Protestantism is bad because there are nut cases out there who pervert the truth. Alright. In that case it must be the fault of Catholicism that this happened. You allowed us to break away from you in the first place so you are fully responsible. In addition, and using your logic, all the unworthy priests who have ever lived are a direct reflection on your faith. Why didn't you stop them?
Don't worry, I know it's hard. I still pray to God for forgiveness because Reformers allowed the Mormons, JW's, and a host of other breakaway faiths to form. We were responsible. But our God is a loving God, and He will forgive. I know you are probably still asking for forgiveness also for what your people have caused and allowed.
Alright, I just noticed that you are Orthodox and not Catholic. My apologies for the mistake. So, the amendment is that my latter comments are really directed to Roman Catholics and not the Orthodox. The underlying principle is the same. The fact that we do not have a man-led centralized power structure, whether iron-fisted or less so, does not make us responsible for people going off into crazy cults. The exact same thing has happened under Protestantism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy from the beginning. Forgetting about the original Protestants, there is a long list of groups that broke away, practically RIGHT AWAY.
Maybe that's why the authority, especially in the RCC, tightened after a time, and kept tightening. However, it seems to me that this would be admitting a failure in God's original set up and system.
God has given man "free will". The Church cannot overide the will of God.
In addition, and using your logic, all the unworthy priests who have ever lived are a direct reflection on your faith. Why didn't you stop them?
This follows the same logic as above. Free will. Applying your logic then, if God knows everything and He knows that someone is about to murder someone else, why doesn't He stop them?
By his grace Jesus makes the Church holy, just as he is holy. This doesn’t mean that each member is always holy. Jesus said there would be both good and bad members in the Church (John 6:70), and not all the members would go to heaven (Matt. 7:21–23).
But the Church itself is holy because it is the source of holiness and is the guardian of the special means of grace Jesus established, the sacraments (cf. Eph. 5:26).