If anything, religion, culture, and civilizaiton have all suffered from the same thing....nothing more (or less) than the dark side of humanity...the desire for control, for economic dominance, of placing the personal agenda/ego above community well-being or a more holistic perspective. In the absence of these impairments, human systems (of earth or of heaven) work much, much better. When they are firmly entrenched, nothing goes right for very long.
People stuck in a false sense of self (which religion can actually help counteract) will use anything handy to meet their programs (which they scarsely understand in the first place). If people care deeply about their religious and spiritual life, some will glob onto that and use it. So, religion gets distorted and manipulated.....an actual attack on the very core and heart of the religious system itself.
So if there are victims, they are victims not of the actual religion at it's core, but of the distorted, manipulated workings of those with other motives, motives religion actually tends to strongly warn against. Distortions, the false self....these are the real problems and always have been. They just pick up different vehicles in different ages. In this regard, religion itself has been raped, pillaged, dismembered, and deformed at various times, and that is the crying shame....even an affront! Fortunately, it still survives and can be still found in it's purest, most authentic state, for those who care to find it. Interesting that at all times there were other voices within the same religious system...voices not swayed by the flavor-of-the-day, voices with perspective and deep roots. We seldom hear them, even now.
Frankly, we are still stuck in the same dynamic today. Which voices are yanking the chains of our cullture? Who do we jump at to assess blame? Where does the false self go to get it's agendas met? What are we overlooking? Who are we listening to and who are we NOT listening to? Things to ponder....
