General Discussion

Once a religion gets tangled up with the state, it becomes a means for the state to assert more power. Christianity started out as a small, often-persecuted Jewish sect based on principles of charity and altruism, but it attracted more and more Gentiles in Greek and Roman territories, until it finally landed a big-name convert, the Roman Emperor Constantine I. Once connected to the state, the new church became wealthy and could own land. Eventually, as was inevitable, once the church became powerful as an extension of the state it became the persecutor instead of the persecuted.