The prime principle of all businesses, that is, profit making, is a capitalistic principle. And, if any Institutionalized religion follows the principle, then ,my friend, I think it is safe to say that that Institutionalized religion is a capitalist organization.
I understand your point, but throughout history, people have operated on getting a “profit” or a need/want met through trade. The Catholic Church sold indulgences before the modern idea of “capitalism” was taken to such an extreme.
Capitalism has indeed brought about the scientific advances and reduction of poverty worldwide … “ Private property rights, enterprise and freedom of choice — all hallmarks of capitalism — can help to increase economic performance and decrease poverty…”. I enjoy owning my property and being “mortgage payment free” or the choice of employment and education. I like deciding where I will spend my dollars and deciding which foods my family consume (unlike being given a ration of food goods)…
AND has also been a tool of exploitation, slavery, and environmental damage/excesses… CEO wage gaps: for every dollar the average employee makes, the upper management make…
Basic water “rights” eg.
India and Coke; Canada and Chinese Water Co. (bottled for sale); built in product “redundancy” forcing waste from consumers and more “product consumption” (our cell phones???)
Religions have exploited and “sheered the sheep” ages before Big Business (Israelites gave their best to the priests, you know, for Jehovah…loved that smokin’ fat)
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Was also the case with Anglicans/Church of England .
By law, everyone had to tithe to that church, Anglican or not. It was a way of supporting the most dim witted lesser sons of the nobility. Traditionally, if he could afford it, daddy would buy them an army commission. If he could not afford it, dopey would go into he the church to become one of those eccentric (stupid) English vicars one sees in films. Mandatory tithing ended in England in 1936.***
The purchasing of Army commissions ended in 1871 in the British army, ending a practice of centuries. However, the British 'officer class ’ flourished until WW1, which polished off a gratifying number of upper class twits in charge. Seems many thought the honourable thing to do was to lead one’s men into battle ,including charging machine guns . The lowly yeomen sergeants would humbly bring up the rear and often survived.
*** in my youth I met some stunningly stupid Catholic priests. To be fair, also met a sprinkling of great blokes.
Fun fact: in the1950’s Ireland had one Catholic priest for every 200 people.
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And as Mark Twain wrote about reading the Book of Mormon. “It is chloroform in print.”
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Just while we are on the subject of Mormonism and the basis of religions, I was reminded, and some of you probably already know, about the claim that Joseph Smith plagiarised the story of Marco Polo’s travels as well as the old testament stories to tell to produce the Book of Mormon.
Just for those who missed this, and its been circulating for quite some time, Aron Ra interviews Kendal Sheets in 2017 who explains how the his father began to unravel the Book of Mormon when some Mormon doorknockers tried to tell his father, an amateur palaeontologist, that the Book of Mormon said there were elephants on the American continent 2000 years ago…