I'd counter that the continuing sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic church worldwide indicates certain fundamental flaws in that institution, as well as in an unacceptably large proportion of individuals among its hierarchy. This goes beyond the actions of just a few.

I'm all in favor of taking personal responsibility. When I took a mortgage at one of the now-defunct giant banks at the heart of the mortgage implosion (chosen because I had a previous mortgage with them prior to their decision to concentrate on re-selling packaged sub-prime loans by deceit), they insisted that I accept highly-deceptive, potentially very destructive loan terms. In other words, they tried their best to deceive me. They then packaged this loan with other of a substantially lesser quality, assigned an inaccurate risk rating to the package, and sold them under even more deceptive terms to investors. There is no mystery about any of this--it's a matter of public record.

In other words, they engaged in fraud at multiple levels--from the executives who adopted that strategy all the way down to the mortgage writer in the local office who tried his best to hide the truth about his product, then admitted that this was all he was now permitted to offer to me. The scale of the fraud at that specific bank ran to many billions of dollars. I don't tar all "bankers" with the same brush, but it seems to me that much of the US banking system has been run similarly, to the detriment of most of the world.

Now, why do you suppose people might be peeved at "bankers?" Why would they be irritated by actions and attitudes within much of the church hierarchy? Do these responses seem unreasonable, in light of recent events (which continue to unfold and most of which presumably remain hidden)?

Railing about the fact that life as we know it would be impossible were it not for "bankers" misses the point. Life as we know it would probably be impossible were it not for scientists, engineers, mathematicians, teachers, farmers, heavy equipment operators, politicians, lawyers and (yes) soldiers as well. That doesn't mean we should maintain a grateful silence in response to institutionalized misbehavior by any of them.

IMHO, of course.

Mark