Religious preacher – why doesn't he want to get rid of Christianity even though he knows the truth about it?
I have a close relative, a young man, who knows a lot of truth about Christianity because I have discussed it with him extensively. As someone experienced in meditation and knowledgeable about the human subconscious, I have managed to figure out, from a psychological perspective, the main reason why he doesn't want to abandon Christianity. He is a person who wants to build a career, who wants to mean something in the world of Christian communities, in the world of Christian preachers. He is driven by power and influence. He is a very communicative and charismatic person, and that's why people like him very much as a person – one could say that young people adore him. He is a very ambitious person who can climb very high among lay preachers in the church hierarchy and could become a preacher equal to Julo Slovák or Pavol Strežo in a few years. This person is a musician, similar to Julo Slovák, and gospel is a very important part of how the church tries to reach young people (he currently has a small gospel group where he is allowed to be a preacher and gospel singer/musician). Put yourself in this person's shoes: if he were to imagine abandoning Christianity, he would lose influence, he would lose influence over young people, he would lose social standing, he would lose the young people who adore him.
It is a very pleasant feeling if you can have a legal sect officially permitted under the wings of the Catholic Church. You have power over the emotions of young people, you can inspire them and make them cry with gospel songs or sermons. Having power over the emotions of young people is a pleasant feeling, it becomes an addiction for you and you want more and more. It is a pleasant feeling if all young people focus their attention on you as a preacher or gospel singer and those people do not even breathe, enthusiastically listening to your every word. As a preacher, you need as many people as possible to focus their attention on you, you crave attention, it is essentially the energy that people give you.
You feel that by evangelizing and fanatical religious indoctrination you are saving the whole world and changing the whole world for the better. You feel your own indispensability and chosenness, that you are incredibly useful, that you are helping people, that you are making this world better.
The state should regulate Christianity.
It is interesting that in Muslim countries, although Islam is a far more aggressive and intolerant religion than Christianity, the regulation of Islam is common. The state has the right to ban the preaching activities of overly radical Islamic clerics, and this is commonly done. The state also actively supervises, regulates, and oversees the theological teaching of Islam to prevent it from becoming too radical. It is interesting that this works in the Muslim world, but it does not work in the Christian world, in Christian Europe.In Slovakia, however, everything is upside down. Although the state is a sponsor of the church, it pays priests as its employees out of its own pocket, and it does not even have the right to block the salary of a priest who is known for overly aggressive and manipulative evangelization. Normally, the sponsor sets the conditions, but in the case of the relationship between the church and the state, this does not apply.
The state can also have a positive impact on church reform. State regulation could legally ensure that children are baptized only from the age of 18. Religious fanatics will argue that this is something anti-Christian, but in reality, it is just one of the Christian currents, the Anabaptists or the New Baptists, who baptized children only from the age of 18. Moreover, several recent encyclicals of the popes admit that the salvation of a non-believing person is also possible.
Furthermore, the secret service should supervise the Catholic Church and other Christian churches much more and should ban at least the most aggressive and manipulative methods of evangelization. Perhaps even moderate Christians will admit that a person should not become a Christian under the influence of emotions and psychological manipulation.