Church and religious experience

Reid's law of religious evasion: 'We structure our churches and maintain them so as to shield us from God and to protect us from genuine religious experience.' He also comments: 'The adult members of churches today do not raise serious religious questions for fear of revealing their doubts or being thought of as strange. There is an implicit conspiracy of slience on religious matters in churches. This conspiracy covers up the fact that the churches do not change lives or influence conduct to any appreciable degree.' There is a lot of truth in this comment!