Institutionalized

Similarly, I believe, when a Christian belongs to a cult or a highly regimented church for a long time, they become institutionalized. This may happen in any religious denomination that becomes a rigidly doctrinarian institution. Such a church may lead its members into the quagmires of dogma, in my view, a faith based on errors of Biblical interpretation. These churches abandon the preaching of the original message of Jesus and lose their original love of the Scriptures. When the interpretation of the Scriptures hardens into some doctrine that cannot be openly supported by the Scriptures, the preaching becomes redundant, based on preconceived and rehearsed sermons. A church isn't supposed to become that way.

A church should be in constant motion: growing, evangelizing, serving and bearing witness to Jesus. Churches that become financial empires and unresponsive to their members, except when it comes to raising funds, such churches become like stagnant waters. Thus, established churches often become institutions whose members can't function outside their doors. Once institutionalized, the members of such churches can't adjust to free society. They feel alienated. The hardened among them soon begin to return to their old ways and run amuck in the company of other Christians. Then they either clash with them or they must run back to their old churches, where they are told to endure the discrimination. However, this is not the bearing of one's cross that Jesus taught us; it's simply the return to an erroneous interpretation of the Bible.