Top cleric says Church of England risks becoming a ‘suburban sect’ | World news | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/ ... urban-sect

He's correct IMO, running anything so public-facing as a business is never gonna work. The whole thing exists on good will, and ironically that's what the church lacks towards entire sections of society... half of it in fact, women.

All churches risk that. As we become more knowledgeable as a species, we become less reliant on baseless faiths.

You would have thought that, by now, our society would have moved beyond relying on the patriarchal scratchings of a bronze/Iron Age desert society.

I think it's quite clear that humans are generally far from being rational; it's quite easy to manipulate with fear and misinformation in politics for example, so appealing to human emotion instead of the brain is always going hold some sway. This applies to a vast array of things (clairvoyance, homeopathy, cults etc.) and not just the old C of E.