Bible says...

I think to some extent the way the Church tried to control its patrons by interpreting the Bible for them, continues on to today. Not completely or even in every religion, but I know a number of people that are religious that have never read the whole Bible or other book used by their church. There is still some control that the Church wants to have over people. The citizen is not left to make their own interpretations of the stories, they are always at the mercy of the priest, pastor, bishop, etc. Even if they are aware enough to have read the entire Bible they are usually still under the influence of their church's views because they are exposed to that thinking (presumably) every week. This obviously is a generalization of time now, because a lot more people today have and are able to read their religious books. This also is a reflection of the amount of education that is available compared to early modern times.