Something Close to Paradox

 Everyone suffers: rich, poor, powerful, enslaved. Religions exist, in part, to help us deal with suffering. But when religion is used by the powerful to perpetuate the suffering of the poor, then we have a problem. And it always is. From one perspective, this is an abuse of religion. That's a purist point of view. But it's also an inevitable function of religion. It is why religion is tolerated in all cultures, or was until Communism called it an "opiate" and spelled its own doom, perhaps.