Reverend Greg

Who Needs Priests Anyway?

Who are they? What do they want from us? Why won’t they leave us alone?

Priests have existed since the most ancient times. I believe priests were those members of a tribe who perhaps were just a little smarter than the rest of their fellow tribe members. Priests were those individuals, who could, among other things, understand – perceive – the true nature of things, specifically nature. But also, relationships, both between men, between humans and animals, between living things and the world in which they live, in short the relationship between Heaven Earth and Man or Ten Chi Jin.

I think it is most likely that in primordial ages it was the village elder who knew not to eat pigs because people died from it (trichinosis, worms in pork) and possessed other important knowledge regarding preventative medicine, safety and other procedures that in some part led to a longer life for members of the community. These customs were handed down from father to son, perhaps from mother to daughter, until they became sacred rules and commandments assimilated into superstitions which had long ago become obscured from their functional origin.

I also believe that largely the priesthood became problematic because as the position of village priest, shaman, and minister evolved, the person who held that position didn’t actually do the common work of the rest of the tribe. As the job of priest became, over maybe hundreds of years, a priest hood (a business complete with a chain of management) it had to secure a consistent income, in whatever form that was at the time.

Now in this day and age anyone involved with, or critical of organized religion will immediately imagine “Oh yeah! Those damn greedy priests, those lazy bastards!” but let me share my perspective on this issue with a martial arts analogy;

Many of us in the martial arts are critical of those making big bucks off of the industry. Celebrities such as Chuck Norris have been accused of being “sell outs” and of disgracing their art. Chuck Norris himself was quoted as saying in a martial arts magazine some years ago that if he remained “true to his art” and hadn’t become a martial arts businessman he would have never had the time, the bandwidth, to develop his arts the way he certainly has. Stay true, you need a day job. Focus on your art, you need to make money. It’s a simple law of commerce.

I think this is what has happened with the clergy in modern times (which means any time in history after man lived in caves). For a priest to refine and develop his craft, he needed to be free from the burden of everyday tasks and labor.

The Craft

And what IS the craft the priesthood develops? First in commerce - generally speaking - either one sells a commodity, or some thing, or a service. Religion is neither and is unique in the world of business. Religion and philosophy are just made up out of thin air.

Religion is the tangible product of the intangible human experience.

The Need

Why do we need religion? Is religion the opiate of the masses?

Yes, and No.

Religion became an integral part of our lives the moment humans came into possession of SELF-AWARENESS. Once we asked “Who are we? What are we doing here?” we began searching for ways to explain how our world works and where our place in this grand scheme really was.

It fell upon the priests of our developing society to devise the rituals and ceremonies designed to create a sense of continuity, security and direction both in the community and in the individual. People naturally searched for understanding when things went wrong in the vague hope that they could rearrange their actions, change the order of daily routines, or in some other way fix what’s gone wrong with their world, be it strange weather occurrences, an increase in bear attacks, poor crop yields or whatever.

In Nichiren’s Buddhism the four dictums included Shingon, the arrival of esoteric Buddhism. Shingon Mikkyo rituals had polluted the heart of Buddhist philosophy with the introduction of the same magical rituals and ceremonies that the first historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, worked to dispel. Magical thinking is a primordial function of human life. In a sense, it's the easy way out, much easier than taking responsibility for one's own individual spiritual maturity.

Unfortunately it is these secret rituals that are the mainstay of any Priesthood’s bread and butter. COMMERCE leads any business to naturally seek out a product based on technology that is either proprietary or cannot be duplicated. No one likes competition. The Catholic Church performed mass for centuries in Latin, a language inaccessible to the common people. They set the standard for the creation of the proprietary religious technology.

Supply and Demand

It would be understandable in this age of tremendous human evolution (I’m being sarcastic here, we have barely changed since we were living in caves) that human beings, with their science, medicine and technology would have outgrown the need for magical rituals, but this is clearly not so.

While compared with the role of the clergy in ancient times modern man no longer relies on the priesthood for the function of village safety officer, doctor and therapist, but the most important and far-reaching function is still very much in demand.

That is, the need for rituals and ceremonies.

It is something even the citizens of the industrialized nations demand and is still very much a viable product. In poorer countries such as say Jamaica where voodoo is commonly practiced the role of the priest is a unique and lucrative one.

In America, as well as other first world countries, the important role of the minister or priest has boiled down to the finalization of milestone events in the lives or their parishioners. Ministers in America serve, as a minimum, as a sort of cosmic notary public. Marriages, funerals, and other rites-of–passage are, in the opinion of many sociologists and would-be POP-gurus, sadly lacking in our society and perhaps the causes for our retarded maturity.

In light if this, the role of the clergy is greatly under-used.

The Dark Side

On the other side of the coin many religious entities have amassed tremendous power and wealth at the expense of their believers. As I write this of course I point to the Catholic Church, a monolith of power and abuse throughout it’s history and now in modern times a refuge and hunting ground for pedophiles.

There is however a natural evolution to any successful religious corporate entity. At stake now is the future of the Soka Gakkai. Whether SG and SGI will naturally evolve into an abusive and power-hungry org remains largely to be seen. Some critics already think it has, but I, the author, know more about other orgs than your average bear. The Church of Scientology comes to mind. Next to CoS and the Mormon Church SGI is a rank cult amateur, but there’s time and only time will tell if the natural path down the dark side can be avoided. After all, we have the Gohonzon and Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

Modern day world citizens demand the product that our clergy delivers. In a sense modern science has clarified the truest and most genuine product Ministers have to offer. From there, its all downhill, but in the end everyone most make a living…..

Reverend Greg Dilley, Shidoshi

Posted by revgreg at April 23, 2004 10:20 AM