Immortality is certainly the biggest part of it, but it has countless other applications. Kill my enemies and you'll get 72 virgins in the afterlife. Give me money and I'll put in a good word for you with the boss. Behave like I want you to behave and you'll get a special place in paradise. Recruit more members to pay off your ticket to get through the gates. On and on it goes.
All of these things involve an exchange of something in the living for a promised reward that is utterly impossible to confirm. Why people don't see this as an obvious complete and total scam is beyond me. Most people seem to realize charlatans like Kenneth Copeland are fleecing the flock, but can't seem to apply that same reasoning to their own church. The only real difference is how successful those reaping the rewards are. The whole thing is masked by claims of helping people who need it, and while that certainly has merit, there's all sorts of ways to do that without the hocus pocus, and without skimming the cream off the top to use for things that have absolutely nothing to do with helping people.
Even if you assume all churches are doing something to help those in need, which is very far afield of reality. Pretty much all of them are still constructing lavish facilities, paying people to administer speeches about nonsense, and otherwise doing all sorts of things that aren't genuinely helping anyone. It's certainly fair to say not all churches are using their influence to directly or indirectly harm disadvantaged people, it is fair to say those who aren't are still providing cover to those who are. So long as they are able to hide behind some degree of legitimacy, they are free to promote very harmful ideas.
It's well past time to take the approach more advanced countries have taken which is to confine religion to a purely ceremonial role and get them completely out of anything remotely to do with public policy.
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