Bigness of churches and empires is a huge problem in the world

By Lethbridge Herald on April 27, 2022.

Editor:

The main reason why I am writing this is not to pick on the Roman Catholic Church for being so very late in admitting its guilt of the residential schools, but to warn ourselves of the danger of being big, powerful, and wealthy.

I am not happy that the media almost completely ignores the fact that three major Canadian churches also participated in the government’s demonic plan to extinguish “Indian out of Indians.” They are Anglican, Presbyterian, and United Churches. 

The difference is, all of three admitted their responsibility and apologized in the 1980’s and ’90s. They paid a hefty price. Some of them went bankrupt paying for the compensation. I am unhappy not because those facts were not reported, but the reason why the Roman Catholic Church took so long to do the right thing was not dealt with. What I am unhappy about is the fact that very few media pointed out the hazard of “big -ness.” 

A big ocean liner takes miles to turn around. Big things can not move as quickly as smaller ones. The Catholic Church can not admit systemically its mistakes as fast as smaller ones: it’s a huge and complex organization. 

It took four centuries to admit that Galileo was right to say: “the Earth circles the Sun.” Big animals are more in danger of extinction than smaller ones. “Ants and bees will take over the earth after humans become extinct,” said the historian, Arnold Toynbee.

A popular dictum, “the bigger the better” is not correct. Billionaires have no licence to ignore the laws nor can they live a hundred years more because of money. 

Did the Roman, Mongolian, Austro-Hungarian, or British Empire bring better life and happiness to the world because they were big? 

The fact is the sins of colonialism are caused by the arrogance of big empires.

 Of course there are many good people among the rich. But are wealthy people always good people because they have bigger bank accounts? Are big companies always doing better things for people than small locally own businesses?

Tragedy of the church in history is that the mis-step was started by the Roman Empire which re-organized the church into an imperial organization of power and wealth. 

The church was a pathetic company of people founded by an humble son of a carpenter born of a girl barely out of puberty through a questionable pregnancy in a occupied country. He advocated good news to the poor and love to all. He was killed as a criminal because what he said was so out of sync. The wealth and power of the church is a contradiction of who Jesus was. 

Remember: one man’s delusion of grandeur is killing thousands of people in Ukraine. Big-ness is a huge problem.

Tadashi (Tad) Mitsui

Lethbridge