from another bearded man

As it turns out, I'm definitely not the first person to be upset with the insitutional church...

"Let the church stop its work of hypnotizing the masses, and deceiving children even for the briefest interval of time, and men would begin to understand Christ's teaching. But this understanding will be the end of the churches and all their influence. And therefore churches will not for an instant relax their zeal in the business of hypnotizing grown-up people and deceiving children. This, then, is the work of the churches: to instill a false interpretation of Christ's teaching into men, and to prevent a true interpretation of it for the majority of so-called believers."

Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is Within You

Lots of places to go after that... but I'll wait and see what you have to say. Comments welcome.