Don't touch God's anointed: don't even think about it! That phrase was hammered into me early in my religious walk and it meant that the pastor (the title in my particular case) was a holy man, sacred, and high on the feeding chain. Now, that same phrase can mean watch out lest you become led down the wrong road, deceived into doing something against your will, or open yourself up to some moral dilemma(s).

One only need to read of the international (and especially Irish) headlines concerning the Catholic priests and children- or with nuns: who knows!

Since the church caved in to Constantine and opted for the good life at the top of the ladder, the church has continued to think it is special, privileged, and deserving of special status. In all actuality, what the emperor (Constantine among others) did was open a door for the priests to get a taste of POWER and determine that they wanted ALL of it. Thus we got introduced to the Dark Ages: and a whole lot more.

As Tom Harpur wrote, "The churches today enjoy a privileged position that hardly reflects Jesus' teachings about humanity-declining the head position at table, avoiding titles, being a servant to one's neighbor, and so on."  Dietrich Bonhoeffer was more pointed by saying, "In a very real sense Jesus came to abolish all religion forever." Such SUPERCILIOUS behavior is the antithesis of Jesus' life.

One of the problems has been to make religion stand out as a particular slice of societal life much like a newspaper where we have a religion section, help wanted section, weather, sports, etc.

The Kingdom of God encompassed the totality of life and impregnated everything. Kingdom living serves and lives by LOVE, and does not create an "anointed caste system" of any sort. How's that sound to you?  :-)