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I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the oldest and prima facie most successful corporate enterprise in history: the Roman Catholic church.

alecco 2y ago
It's interesting how there are a lot of jokes like this but not many about the other two Abrahamic religions.
- timeon 2y ago
  Is it because of church's structure?
- berkes 2y ago
  They aren't as centrally and hierarchical organized as the RCC. Even most other Christian sects aren't organized like that. So this unique feature makes it distinctive. That, and the fact that it's much nicer to poke fun at "higher ups" than at peers. So if you make your whole organization about "higher ups" there's a lot of fun to be poked, I guess.
  - Ekaros 2y ago
    State churches like Anglican church might be more apt comparison. And those often do look like corporations when squinting, with lot of state funding or even taxation instead of sales... You even get various managerial classes, which do need to perform slightly different corporate rituals.
    - rsynnott 2y ago
      Yeah, the Church of England is (ironically, given its origins) structurally not a million miles away from the Catholic Church. Much newer, though, of course; there are (quite a few) pubs older than the CoE.
  - et-al 2y ago
    The Latter-Day Saints (aka Mormons) are relatively young, but they're definitely one of the more, if not the most, organized Christian sect around.
- rsynnott 2y ago
  I mean, I assume because there’s nothing you could plausibly call Judaism Incorporated, or Islam Limited, but the Catholic Church arguably does look like a corporate entity if you squint hard enough (though it's actually really the remnants of a _state_). It would be impossible to make this joke about Judaism or Islam, or at least, if you did, it wouldn’t make any sense. The Knights of Malta is a similar case, though newer; used to be a state, and kind of still pretends to be a state, but really a non-profit corporation of sorts.
  - alecco 2y ago
    >> jokes like this > this joke I think you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about and being disingenuous muddying my point.
    - rsynnott 2y ago
      No, I'm sorry, I've no idea. Unless you're claiming that no-one ever makes jokes of any sort about the other two big Abrahamic religions, but, I mean, er, they do. Perhaps you could be a bit clearer about what you're attempting to say? For this particular joke, though, neither would make any sense.
      - alecco 2y ago
        >>>> A LOT of jokes like this but NOT MANY [...] > Unless you're claiming that NO-ONE EVER makes jokes OF ANY SORT about the other two big Abrahamic religions, but, I mean, er, THEY DO. Again you change what I say and then you use it to blatantly lie. There are jokes on the other two but it is very, very rare and usually very, very mild. And you know exactly what I mean. I'm done. I don't care about your answers out of cognitive dissonance or straight out malice. And final note: I'm not even Christian.
        magic123_ 2y ago
        Just because you know exactly what you mean (which in itself could be questioned), it's just ridiculous to expect anyone else to. FWIW where I'm from and in my social circles, the other two religions get joked about way more.
- wwilim 2y ago
  "To think they started in a barn..."
  - kibwen 2y ago
    This is a joke, but also it promulgates the conflation between the institution of Catholicism and the general religion of Christianity (much like the commenter above is doing). In truth Catholicism could be said to have started as conceptually far from a humble barn as possible: in the imperial palace of Constantine (or maybe Theodosius or Justinian, depending on who's counting).
keiferski 2y ago
Indeed the RCC even has something of a long history with the word corporate itself, which ultimately comes from Latin for body; as in, Corpus Christi, the body of Christ.
- weebull 2y ago
  ...or the English word "corpse".
Cthulhu_ 2y ago
If religious institutions count, there's plenty that are older than Catholicism.
- keiferski 2y ago
  Just curious, what did you have in mind? I cannot think of any extant religious institution with the kind of centralized singular organizational structure that the RCC has. Many “religions” (using quotes here because the concept of a religion is a bit of a complicated topic) are older than Catholicism but are or were more decentralized - like Hinduism.
- rsynnott 2y ago
  Still extant? Do you have examples? The oldest Buddhist temples seem to be a few centuries older than it, but there's little reason to think that there's any organisational continuity there. (Of course, if you want to get super-vague, one could semi-reasonably argue that the Catholic Church is just a successor state to the Roman Republic via the Empire anyway, which pushes it back to about 500BCE.)
nix-zarathustra 2y ago
The Roman Catholic Church is more of a country than an enterprise, given the Holy See.

alecco 2y ago

It's interesting how there are a lot of jokes like this but not many about the other two Abrahamic religions.

timeon 2y ago
Is it because of church's structure?
berkes 2y ago
They aren't as centrally and hierarchical organized as the RCC. Even most other Christian sects aren't organized like that. So this unique feature makes it distinctive. That, and the fact that it's much nicer to poke fun at "higher ups" than at peers. So if you make your whole organization about "higher ups" there's a lot of fun to be poked, I guess.
- Ekaros 2y ago
  State churches like Anglican church might be more apt comparison. And those often do look like corporations when squinting, with lot of state funding or even taxation instead of sales... You even get various managerial classes, which do need to perform slightly different corporate rituals.
  - rsynnott 2y ago
    Yeah, the Church of England is (ironically, given its origins) structurally not a million miles away from the Catholic Church. Much newer, though, of course; there are (quite a few) pubs older than the CoE.
- et-al 2y ago
  The Latter-Day Saints (aka Mormons) are relatively young, but they're definitely one of the more, if not the most, organized Christian sect around.
rsynnott 2y ago
I mean, I assume because there’s nothing you could plausibly call Judaism Incorporated, or Islam Limited, but the Catholic Church arguably does look like a corporate entity if you squint hard enough (though it's actually really the remnants of a _state_). It would be impossible to make this joke about Judaism or Islam, or at least, if you did, it wouldn’t make any sense. The Knights of Malta is a similar case, though newer; used to be a state, and kind of still pretends to be a state, but really a non-profit corporation of sorts.
- alecco 2y ago
  >> jokes like this > this joke I think you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about and being disingenuous muddying my point.
  - rsynnott 2y ago
    No, I'm sorry, I've no idea. Unless you're claiming that no-one ever makes jokes of any sort about the other two big Abrahamic religions, but, I mean, er, they do. Perhaps you could be a bit clearer about what you're attempting to say? For this particular joke, though, neither would make any sense.
    - alecco 2y ago
      >>>> A LOT of jokes like this but NOT MANY [...] > Unless you're claiming that NO-ONE EVER makes jokes OF ANY SORT about the other two big Abrahamic religions, but, I mean, er, THEY DO. Again you change what I say and then you use it to blatantly lie. There are jokes on the other two but it is very, very rare and usually very, very mild. And you know exactly what I mean. I'm done. I don't care about your answers out of cognitive dissonance or straight out malice. And final note: I'm not even Christian.
      - magic123_ 2y ago
        Just because you know exactly what you mean (which in itself could be questioned), it's just ridiculous to expect anyone else to. FWIW where I'm from and in my social circles, the other two religions get joked about way more.
wwilim 2y ago
"To think they started in a barn..."
- kibwen 2y ago
  This is a joke, but also it promulgates the conflation between the institution of Catholicism and the general religion of Christianity (much like the commenter above is doing). In truth Catholicism could be said to have started as conceptually far from a humble barn as possible: in the imperial palace of Constantine (or maybe Theodosius or Justinian, depending on who's counting).

keiferski 2y ago

Indeed the RCC even has something of a long history with the word corporate itself, which ultimately comes from Latin for body; as in, Corpus Christi, the body of Christ.

weebull 2y ago
...or the English word "corpse".

Cthulhu_ 2y ago

If religious institutions count, there's plenty that are older than Catholicism.

keiferski 2y ago
Just curious, what did you have in mind? I cannot think of any extant religious institution with the kind of centralized singular organizational structure that the RCC has. Many “religions” (using quotes here because the concept of a religion is a bit of a complicated topic) are older than Catholicism but are or were more decentralized - like Hinduism.
rsynnott 2y ago
Still extant? Do you have examples? The oldest Buddhist temples seem to be a few centuries older than it, but there's little reason to think that there's any organisational continuity there. (Of course, if you want to get super-vague, one could semi-reasonably argue that the Catholic Church is just a successor state to the Roman Republic via the Empire anyway, which pushes it back to about 500BCE.)

nix-zarathustra 2y ago

The Roman Catholic Church is more of a country than an enterprise, given the Holy See.