I think there’s more to that saying in Hosea 4:9. The saying, “like people, like priest” is akin to the saying, “like father, like son”. It’s not just saying the father and son are both alike, good or bad. In that saying, the son is turning out to be like the father. One follows the other. I think the saying in Hosea is saying the people are leading the priests to ruin.
The people are a crooked generation. Of God’s people, it could be said, “like culture, like Israel”. The culture was crooked and it made the people crooked. And when the people become like the culture, the spiritual leaders are pressured to follow. The pulpit preaching suffers.
Spiritual leaders are the wall of defense against the pressure of the world. The preachers and elders have to stand firm against the pressure. This means the church leadership has to stand firm an internal conflict in the church. While their guard was down, the world slowly crept into the pews. The faithful have a choice to give in or resist. It’s gonna’ get ugly before it gets better.
In Hosea’s day, the did not stand up and stop the ungodliness and so became like the people. The leaders in Hosea’s day gave in to the pressure of the people. And the people gave into the pressure from the secular world. Ultimately, it was “like satan, like the world”.
Aaron, brother of Moses, was led by the people, Exodus 32, and gave them their idol. King Saul gave into the people and did not follow God’s instruction, 1 Sam. 15.
It is important that every Christian check himself to see if he is faithful to God, 2 Cor. 13:5. Why? Because as the individual goes, so goes the family; and as the family goes, so goes the church. Paul talks about this when a time is coming that the people will accumulate unto themselves teachers that will say what they want to hear. Then it will be, “like people, like teachers”, and the teachers will become like the worldly Christians. And yes, there are carnal-minded Christians, 1 Cor. 3:1-3.
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
So the answer to my initial question is, yes, churches do cave to the pressure of the world. When it happens, there’s no difference between the world and the church.
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A Conquering Faith 
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