Does Christianity lead to enlightenment?

As one who was raised Christian, I am frequently faced with the awful truth that the wonderful teachings of Jesus, experienced through the filter of centuries of Christianity, has become a dogma that for the majority of its followers will actually limit enlighenment or access the Kingdom of Heaven. While I do not personally have access to a list of who's "enlighened" and who is not, having traveled extensively around the world and seen Christianity in various forms I feel confident in drawing this conclusion.

To understand this, let's understand what enlightenment is. My personal experience and that which I observe in others is a level of consciousness where one feels deeply connected to God, to the entirely of humanity without exceptions, to earth and to all off earth's inhabitents. Enlighened people by and large have become far more accepting and compassionate of others, independent of their race, class or sexual orientation. They do not spend their energy seeking to restrict the freedom of others, even where those freedoms clash with their own personal beliefs. I could go on, but I'll leave that for another day. But in summary, enlightened people are free and allow others to also be free.

Much of mainstream Christianity relies on the establishment of rules to follow and teaches followers to follow the rules or incur the wrath of God. The specifics vary according to the myriad variants but the basic concept of "follow the rules" is a constant.

Let's remember that Jesus taught us to be as children before Father God- expect God to care for us and take care of all our needs with perfect faith and trust. Jesus never emphasized that we should worship him, most poignently symbolized by his washing the apostles' feet at the last supper. But the key here is that he taught us to have a direct, personal relationship with God- not to put himself, priests or ministers between ourselves and God.

And so the question you should ask yourself is "how many layers of beliefs have I placed between myself and my Father?" Do you believe yourself to be less than Jesus? Do you believe yourself to be less that the priests and ministers of Christianity? Do you believe that rules created by man should have any power over your direct relationship with God? Do you blindly follow the herd or do you seek out truth for yourself?

Jesus' truth will set you free, but you're unlikely to find it in Christianity.