Thankfully I was born and raised with no religion. Sorry for your pain.

I am currently being shunned by my relatives and former friends for leaving their cult. This has been going on for 17 years.

For me it’s not an experience of my own, but that of a school friend of my father’s. My father broke with the rest of his family when he was 18 on the subject of church, saying he refused to go any longer. But his good friend Bill stayed within his father’s fold, and spent his whole life going to church and upholding religious beliefs. He is now an alcoholic, has rarely been outside of the country and still volunteers for church organisations. You could say his life has been dominated by the church, I can hardly think of anything worse.

I can’t think of a specific incident that was bad for me but I remember sitting at the funeral of a friend and seeing his widow and two young daughters and listening to the priest go on and on about god’s mysterious will and how their husband and father was nestled in god’s loving embrace and I just wanted to scream at him to shut the F up.

In 6th grade, a friend gave me a Chinese stress ball necklace as a gift. Wore it when I went to see my bio dad, and he told me the necklace was sinful because it had yin yangs on it and that I was surrounded by demons for wearing it.

I lost my job because of a divorce

I lost a woman I love because her father put his foot down at her dating a Jew.. I still love her some sixty years . later.

Never been religious or attended church, but not long after my Mum died, we had a pamphlet through the door. Can't remember what sect (it was 17 years ago) but it stated that people who die early or before their time had offended god, and handicapped people were paying for sins. There was a note attached, saying we will return to talk about my redemption and being saved. When they did come back, luckily my partner answered the door, and when i heard who it was, i shouted to her "get those disgusting cunts away from here now, or i won't be responsible for my actions" still a upset and angry to this day, how fucking dare they? (My Mum died on her 60th birthday)

I was told by a religious doctor that I was raped because I had not accepted Jesus as my savior and that I should be baptized immediately to prevent further rapes. The sheriff who brought me in told me that God made pretty girls like me to be raped by men, so it was very confusing at the age of 16. Yeah...hypocrisy and scare tactics...worst tools of the trade.