That's not necessarily true for all religions. In Hinduism and Buddhism, for instance, it's fully understood that a lay understanding of the faith is not the same as what a monk would have. Seeking enlightenment is a different path from the life of a householder. In the same vein, Christian mysticism, kaballah, Sufism all have that same tendency towards further spiritual study and the path of an aesthetic.

The problem is with people listening to fucked up preachers and then deciding they have all the information they'll ever need. The problem is with Christians, not Christianity. The religious, not the religion. The religion itself is a neutral thing, just about regardless of the religion we're talking about. It's the people that make it what it is, and those people are varied. Religions are internally diverse, by their nature.