Humans are pack predators that modify their minds to create a pack organism.
Democracy is necessary because of this.

Pack allegiances must be declared. With allegiance comes responsibility.
The more resources you have the greater your responsibilities.
If you have the logic to gather the resources, you have the logic to use those resources well.
Those with resources but no responsibilities or logic - are the result of inheritance and lotteries.
The greater your rank the greater the punishment for crime.
The greater your knowledge the better you can contribute to the pack logic.
The better the pack logic the more certain the future.

Humans tempted will fail. Need I show billions of examples?
I can prove to you that emotions are direct modifiers of your mind,
but you want to be free to fail for yourself.
So what's a church to do?
Teach and Hope. Watch and Forgive.
Such behavior is part of human evolution.
Identify the manipulators, those that use pack mind to influence and fleece.
Sports, entertainment, drugs - all excitement for profit.
The secure, productive, forgiving path of the church will prevail.
The teaching that makes peace possible will be heeded.

Guard against ever increasing complexity. Complexity is a method of control.
An average adult should be able to understand the law. If they can't then those that do are in control.
Humans hold onto traditions and would only add and never remove if left to their nature.
Remove old laws as you add new ones - strive for simplicity.

Guard against stagnation.
Church leaders to be elected and have term limits?
Question the need for the church every ten years.
Once the idea is common knowledge then there will be no need, logic will prevail.
This might take a century or two.

Pack structure and laws must be iterative in the natural way.
Block/ward/district, city, county, state, country, world.
These are the packs of law. All packs outside of these have less priority.
Family, tribe, gang, party crew, team, job, etc. are all packs that exist under the law.
Your allegiance to law trumps yor allegiance to your gang - though you may be easily deluded into thinking otherwise.

Secrecy is only to protect your ego, your pack, your self delusion.
Shame for error must be endured. Hiding it destroys honor for logic. Honor for pack is subordinate. Error must be forgiven.
The higher the level of error the more necessary the transparency.
Purposeful error is evil.
All must be able to believe in the law - If the top level does not follow the law then others are justified to do the same.
This must not be allowed.
Top level crime deserves top level punishment.
An officer of the state influences 10,000 people - the punishment should be 10,000 times that of the individual.
Not practical, but you get the picture. The more people your actions affect - the bigger the punishment. (*draft* version - I don't *want* to write this)

Good copious graces, I do declare you make sense.

"Remove old laws as you add new ones - strive for simplicity."

Simplify. Redact. Reduce. Allow to compete. Create. Build. Prosper. The world: renewed each generation. The contract: remanded each generation. Either that, or anarchy.