The Lesson of Anakin and Ahsoka for the Church

I was thinking this morning about Anakin Skywalker and his much mocked cry to the Council upon their refusal to recognize him as a Master Jedi, "It's not fair!" He was right. It wasn't fair, and it wasn't honest if we take his entire history into account.
Anakin, against his own wishes, took Ahsoka as his padawan learner and trained her from about the age of twelve or thirteen to about the age of eighteen. He was dutiful, caring, and thoughtful as her master as was even recently revealed in the Ahsoka series where he had made over twenty training "videos" for her in the event he wasn't there so that she could keep learning, something which was apparently unusually prescient and thoughtful among the Jedi Masters. He did more than most masters it would seem, and loved her like a little sister.
It was Anakin who continued to stand by Ahsoka when she was framed for murder, who continued to believe in her innocence. It was only his loyalty to the Council, doing what he understood to be the right and mature thing to do as a Master Jedi, that kept him from following his feelings and instincts in the Force to go after her and join her in proving her innocence.
When she finally did clear her name, the Council returned to her with a kind of apology and declared that her ordeal was her Jedi Trial, and they were granting her the rank of Jedi Knight. It was Ahsoka who immediately turned it down and quit the Order because of their lack of trust or faith in her. Anakin of course, was crushed.
But here's the thing, in order for a Knight to be considered a Master, he or she had to train a padawan up to the rank of knighthood. That's it. Technically speaking, by the Council's own words, Anakin had fulfilled that role. He was a Master among equals where the Council was concerned, and nearly unparalleled in his own communion with the Force.
So, when the Council refused to recognize him as a Master Jedi, it was out of pure spite and hard heartedness. It was out of pure spite for Palpatine's interference, and it was hard hearted in that they refused to recognize their own culpability for Ahsoka's walking away and put all of the responsibility for their mistakes solely on Anakin's shoulders. It wasn't that they refused to promote him, it was that they spitefully demoted him from his rightful place through no fault of his own.
As I was thinking through this, this is frequently an analogy of what does happen within the churches and church organizations. Pastors and congregants can be held responsible for decisions which the church or organization boards or councils have made, and then they leave, or even possibly turn against the church or organization as in the case of Anakin, and the church or organization itself refuses to take responsibility for its own choices and mistakes. They hunker down and place all the blame on the person who has left.
Clearly this is not what Scripture teaches about how church leadership is to handle its own mistakes and erring leadership. Correction is not to be handled in the shadows, privately in the back room where no one else is privy, but out in the open. Mercy, compassion, and recognizing your own errors is the rule along with receiving correction.
A lot has been said about the Jedi Order being so stuck in its traditions and rigid structure that it could neither see the Sith threat, nor the rot from within from adhering more to the Jedi codes of conduct and dogma than to the living and active will of the Force. It was because of this dogma induced blindness to what the Force was practically screaming at them that they couldn't see the Dark Side rising and enveloping everything, because they couldn't acknowledge the Dark Side as also a legitimate and balanced part of the Force itself.
There is a lesson and a warning here for the Church. A lot of Ahsokas have departed their congregations now. A lot of Anakins have now turned. And still, the churches are so stuck in their dogmas that they can't hear the Spirit of Christ practically screaming at them.