(Sigh). I know where you're coming from, Shelinator. Maybe I could explain why I obeyed as much as I did (and I suspect this is the reason why so many people DO obey). I also feel very strongly that this is all a deliberate action on the part of the church leadership and that ordinary people should not be held responsible (or only have very limited responsibility) for what has happened because of what I think about this.

I was taught that there was a hierarchy- we ALL had to obey God, because God saw and knew all, and disobedience meant being punished for all eternity in HELL. The preachers were part of that "God-ordained" hierarchy which strongly resembles feudalism in my opinion. We were taught that obedience to authority was part of obedience to God.

IMO it's a nice hegemonic control system- probably one of the best because it incorporates aspects of the "panopticon" and other means of getting people to "control" themselves (and place the wants of the elites/leaders/powerful before their own NEEDS).

I have a big problem with any hierarchical structure that doesn't include a negative feedback structure- a means of limiting the amount of authority the preachers/leaders have in the lives of others. In fact, I think that the Pente churches (and especially ALL of the Dominionist churches) actually have a POSITIVE feedback structure in their organization- it encourages this sort of abuse of power. Their structure ENCOURAGES the leaders to try to gather more authority and power over others- the more they have, the more they want. This is an unstable situation and prime for abuse.