Is all orthodoxy dishonest?

[SeattleUte]

In Dostoyevsky's parable of the Grand Inquisitor Christ pays a visit to Seville, Spain, during the height of the Inquisition (I can't vouch for the historicity of this one, but I do like it better than the Nephi-Laban one; just my personal taste). The Grand Inquisitor instantly recognizes Christ, and is disoncerted that the people fell down and worshipped Christ and wept. So the Grand Inquisitor imprisons Christ, and that night visits him in his cell, bearing a lantern. The Grand Inquisitor says, essentially, "We'll burn you tomorrow. You shouldn't have come. Don't you see we've got things under control here?" The Grand Inquisitor then goes on to taunt Christ, telling him that the Grand Inquisitor and his henchmen, not Christ, dispense what the people desparately want: tales about miracles and such, and being told how to believe and what to do. The people don't want liberty, nor true spirituality. He tells Christ that he should have accepted the earthly dominions that Satan offered, and now the Grand Inquisitor and his followers will claim from Satan what Christ rejected.

In the climax of the Grand Inquisitor's oration he tells Christ:

"Men rejoice at being led like cattle again, with the terrible gift of freedom that brought them so much suffering removed from them . . . . We will convince them that they will only be free when they have surrendered their freedom and submitted to us . . . . Freedom, free thought, and science will lead them into such straits and will bring them face to face with such marvels and insoluble mysteries, that some of them, the fierce and rebellious, will destroy themselves, others, rebellious but weak, will destroy one another, while the rest, weak and unhappy, will crawl fawning to our feet and whine to us: 'Yes, you were right, you alone possess His mystery, and we come back to you, save us from ourselves!'"

I think the point of the Grand Inquisitor is a condemnation of orthodoxy. Truth is never as neat and absolute as the fundamentalists pretend. They know it, too, because they don't comprise a disporportionate share of stupid people, as you've seen here. Orthodoxy is about an agenda, about control, about preserving the institution at ALL costs. Mullahs are liars.