Anon,
I know you were interested in where commerce, in the form of money, crosses religion. However, to me, this is already well regulated in most societies.
It’s not terribly interesting to me, as the matter of leverage is at hand in that an exchange of money occurred and thereby offers a tangible handle to pliably work around in law.
Where I find it fascinating and difficult is where money isn’t existent.
My argument is that commerce still exists in this environment, and my claim of such is based on the existence of a form of social contract. Specifically, in legal terms, an implied contract.
I see it as such, as an implied contract is a contract that is held existant in the absence of an explicit (or express) contract when the denial of one existing permits the existence of unjust enrichment to one of the parties involved in the relationship.
By unjust enrichment, it is meant that a condition where a benefit of some fashion is retained by one party without any compensation, though the circumstances are clear that the provision of that benefit is not intended as a gift.
The benefit gained by the individual offering spiritual prescriptions is the adherent, and the compensation for adherence by the recipient is an advantage perceived out of good faith; whereby good faith is the earnest intent to fulfill a promise without taking an unfair advantage over another person.
Negligence, thereby, is held accountable due to the assumed good faith position by the recipient of the provider of prescriptions, as if the provider claims an absence of awareness of the implied contract, then they are held accountable for negligence if there is an existence of a duty or expectation to exercise reasonable care over their relationship, a failure to exercise said reasonable care, a cause of physical harm by their negligent conduct, or a physical harm in the form of actual damages to property; as well as a clear line showing that the harm is within the scope of liability of the provider.
Which means, harm occurred, and they should have known harm was possible as a reasonable individual (up to the court’s say on this portion) would have been aware.
I hold the weight of responsibility resting mostly on the side of the provider of spiritual prescriptions as they are claiming an offer of expertise and/or knowledge to those willing to adhere who have not the knowledge the provider proposes the capacity of offering.