How do pagan religious leaders keep people under their control?
Pagan religious leaders keep people under their control by saturating them with superstition. The context states that this is the only way pagan religious leaders can keep their people under control. Superstition is therefore the mechanism used to maintain submission in a pagan society.
Les explains that whenever you are under a pagan society, the only way pagan religious leaders can keep their people under control is to have them saturated with superstition. He connects this to 1 Corinthians 5:7, where Paul writes that some with conscience of the idol eat meat as a thing offered unto an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled. For weak young believers, knowing where that meat had gone before it got to their table, they had reservations about eating it. Even though they were saved, they still lacked comprehension of the true God compared to the powerless gods of idols. This illustrates how superstition keeps people under control.