Cameo-d, the Mayan priests did the same thing. LOL
Priestcraft has been going on since humans were 2 hairs from a baboon. Sure, anyone can take advantage of the gullible. Ponzi schemes and Bernie Madoff prove that even supposedly smart rich people get scammed too!
That's why I believe that essentially, faith works best individually. How else can it work but on the individual as that is how it's spoken of as operating? No organization or ministry can access or mediate God for you.
Churches at their best merely facilitate your personal connection to God through fellowship...at their worst, they exploit it.
Religions that advocate works for salvation get lots of free labor, which is exploitive. Quite a bit like the medieval commoners mentioned in your posts.
The sad thing was, if you keep people ignorant, they believe that a life of servitude to the higher class is all they deserve. I'm sure that sounds oh so familiar to Jehovah's Witness R&F.
Democracy changed a lot of things, including the nature of religion in the world. The classism that kept the clergy in the learned or "gentry" class is pretty much gone, as education is what gives access to that now. People no longer look at religion as a blessing they receive from the learned, who explain it to them, they go out and discover God for themselves with education and freedom. At least, they do outside of Jehovah's Witnesses. As has been brought out here before, Witnesses are most successful converting among the poor and under or un-educated.
The worse thing about a recession like we're having now is that it risks creating economic classism again. There are more poor than there have been in a hundred years in America because of our economic policies. The poor have less access to education, and will remain oppressed, ignorant and susceptible to anyone who wishes to exploit them, including religion.