text: In the fourth century, Jerome wrote of Christians, "Your churches are festooned with silver and gold while Christ himself lies dying on their steps."  It's the same in every age: religion becomes just one more device for acquiring power over men.  The starting mythology is unimportant.  No creed could be more pacifistic than Buddhism, yet look at the violence Sri Lankan Buddhists inflicted on their Hindu Tamil neighbors, or the persecution Burmese Buddhists now inflict on the Muslim Rohingya.  During World War II revered Zen abbots justified Japan's cruel invasion and occupation of China, which caused perhaps 5 million military casualties and an estimated 20 million civilian deaths.
  
  The Alaska Family Act-Outs are just a bunch of people who've kept their audience for 20 years with this kind of ginned-up sexual hysteria.  They have to keep up the stunts or their audience, and hence their self-importance, would just fade away.  Few outside a handful of churches care about this stuff.