I already gave my thoughts on this elsewhere in the thread. People asked good questions and I gave them the best answers I could.
But yeah: not much. I think the difference is not in the construction of the religious hierarchy itself, but in how historically established the traditions are among the people. There is a point where a cult becomes a culture. That point is admittedly arbitrary, but I think there's a significant difference between trying to snuff out a modern cult before it becomes too powerful and trying to snuff out a ~2000 year old religion with tens of millions of adherents.
what's the functional difference between the Vatican and the Scientology HQ?
I already gave my thoughts on this elsewhere in the thread. People asked good questions and I gave them the best answers I could.
But yeah: not much. I think the difference is not in the construction of the religious hierarchy itself, but in how historically established the traditions are among the people. There is a point where a cult becomes a culture. That point is admittedly arbitrary, but I think there's a significant difference between trying to snuff out a modern cult before it becomes too powerful and trying to snuff out a ~2000 year old religion with tens of millions of adherents.