SEEDS OF TYRANNY
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Church, "she is the entrance to life, all others are thieves and robbers."48 Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch, wrote, "Let no man deceive himself: if any one be not within the altar, he is deprived of the bread of God. "49 And Clement, the Bishop of Rome from 90-100 C.E., argued that God alone rules all things, that He lays down the law, punishing rebels and rewarding the obedient, and that His authority is delegated to Church leaders. Clement went as far as to say that whoever disobeys these divinely ordained authorities has disobeyed God Himself and should receive the death penalty.50 Long before the Church's attempt to control spirituality would take its devastating toll, the seeds of its tyranny were evident in the ideology of early orthodox Christians. Their belief in singular supremacy limited the way one could understand God and it eliminated any representation of shared supremacy. It encouraged a fear-based authoritarian structure that segregates people into positions of superiority or inferiority, restricts personal empowerment, and demands unquestioning obedience. Although orthodox Christians represented only one of many early branches, within a few centuries they had effectively suppressed the diversity of early beliefs and ideas. Orthodox Christian beliefs became synonymous with Christianity itself.