Demonic Intention

Rev. Patricia Lyons

A centuries-old interpretation of the accounts of Jesus "cleansing the Temple" is that Jesus' righteous indignation was rooted not just in a general rebuke of commerce in the Temple but rooted in the specific exploitation of the religious longings and observance of the poor and vulnerable by their own corrupted leaders. 

Read the entire New Testament and you will learn that nothing brought Jesus to a greater state of rage than leaders that play with their followers as political pawns and manipulate their desire to worship God for political gain.  In Christian Moral Theology we have a specific term for leadership that knowingly leads sheep to slaughter: demonic.

(Quoted in a recent homily by Fr. Michael of St. Gregory's Episcopal Church
Full homily here:  A Word from the Priest  )