"he tells the rich man to give everything away and follow him? "

That was not a prescription indicating that wealth keeps a person from going to Heaven. 1 Timothy 6:10 states that, "For the love of money is the root of all evil." Money is not evil in and of itself. The evil is in loving money (or anything else) more than one loves God, which makes that thing an idol. Having wealth doesn't keep one from entering Heaven, but because of man's sin nature most people are too susceptible to greed to not love money more than God once they acquire a large quantity of it because they are short-sighted enough to think that money is salvation.

Like many of you have stated here, I agree that organized religion too often is a failure. However, I have been blessed enough to have discovered a church that understands that it's purpose is not to milk the congregations wallet, but rather to see that an honest effort is made to help each person attending understand their opportunity to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and that the church is only there to facilitate that through fellowship and worship. After having given up on "organized religion" decades ago I stumbled upon a church that "gets it" and it has made all the difference. There are also others out there, though few and far between. It's worth keeping an open mind about it.