Clericalism

People ask me, “What is clericalism?”  I will give you an example.  When a priest or bishop/cardinal is caught in a scandal, such as with a child, one of the ways that they are punished, is to be “reduced to the lay state.”  Notice the language of the institutional church.  Why is the lay state, a reduction?  Because the ordained state is seen as better than the lay state.  Implied is that the priest is a step up from what everyone else is.  This is clericalism.  To put power into the hands of the laity seems like a loss to clergy, or a lessening of the structure of the institution.  Laity can run some things, but always under the guise of an ordained person.  In solving problems in the institutional church, the ordained bishops and cardinals struggle with and debate the very idea of giving more power to a lay board to manage the lives of the ordained.  Lay boards can manage charitable organizations, but not the lives of the ordained.  That is a closed shop.  Any hierarchical structure, not just religion, suffers from the idea that the higher up is better than.  God sees us all as equal.  Generals are not more loved that enlisted Privates, nor CEOs more than the person who takes out the garbage.  We can respect an office, but it does not make that person better than others.