Modern Church Smackdown

In his address to the next generation of preachers and ministers, Emerson tries to open the student's eyes to the wrong doings and the corruptness of the modern day power structure that is the church. He is not criticizing the religion these students have dedicated their lives to, he is simple implying that the look at the words of Jesus and then look at what we worship and do today; which are two very different things. The modern church is just an organization that is designed to gather money and land and is not devout to true enlightenment for the individual soul. It preaches about the miracles and divine powers of Jesus, instead of concentrating on his message. It also preaches God second hand to it's followers. According to them you need a minister or priest and maybe even a church in order to love and worship God properly. To Emerson (and I agree) you must find your own holiness and god through seclusion and inflection, preferable in nature.
"A more secret, sweet, and overpowering beauty appears to man when his heart and mind open to the sentiment of virtue." Now this is where the audience started to get angry. Emerson notes how Europe owes to Oriental genius and then goes on to explain the two errors of the modern church. First, Emerson recognizes Jesus Christ's genius, but how his words and image are being used today is disgusting. "But what a distortion did his doctrine and memory suffer in the same, in the next, and the following ages!" Jesus's words are true and beautiful, but the church just uses them to their own advantage. I also liked this bit: "...churches are not built on his principals, but on his tropes. Christianity became a Mythus..." This angered the crowd further. "...eastern monarchy of a Christianity, indolence and fear have built, the friend of man is made the injurer of man." Emerson is now speaking on how Christ has not become a model for the ideal human being, but a figure to be worshiped, and feared. Do what the church says, or God will get you. It is sad really, what a beautiful world we could be living in if it wasn't for large organized religions today. If the words of Jesus had been followed by his contemporaries, and not used by them, we would be living in a much different world today.

Now, Emerson did not say this, but I think this gross misuse of Christ's word and his image are how the church rose to wealth and power during a time in this world when people were uneducated, had no rights, and nothing to believe in. Instead of making this world a better place, like Jesus wanted, power hungry organizations used the words and power of Christ to oppress, get rich, and to keep the masses under their control.