Heresy and the Institutional Church

From Alistair Kee, Domination or Liberation: The Place of Religion in Social Conflict (UK Link), SCM, 1986:

The church is necessarily hierarchical, a chain of authority and command. It is necessarily divided into classes, which are defined in relation to production and consumption. Above all authoritarianism, maintenance of the status quo and the suppression of dissent are not unfortunate and correctible aberrations, but of the very essence of the institutional church ... the Inquisition was little concerned with immorality, but greatly concerned with heresy. The reason is quite clear. Immorality, which leads to confession, penance, absolution and indulgences, actually stimulates activity for religious monopoly capitalism. Sin is good for the religious business. But heresy threatens the acceptance and credibility of the whole system (P. 85).