You don't know they're hiding anything.

[His voice turned sharp briefly, followed by another pause. Frustration was a difficult thing to manage, for someone who purposely kept an ironclad grip on anger out of fear for what might happen if he didn't.]

Why do you assume malice where there is no evidence of it? It is within reason to assume the actions of the gods of this realm to be what force such things, not their adherents. And for another thing-