I don't see myself as a victim, even though I can certainly in theory blame Christianity or my parents if I really wanted to. But I also have to acknowledge that I had a role to play. I was willfully ignorant and super-compliant because of my need to please combined with a Jesus complex a mile wide. That in turn made me open to patriarchal notions of man-as-protector-and-leader, as well as dispenser of redemptive love that could overcome any emotional or interpersonal issue like magic. So on the one hand my expectations were wildly unrealistic; on the other hand, I wanted them to be.

I had to own up to my own role in all this first, and after all, that was the only thing I had any actual control over. I don't control Other People. Even developing and maintaining healthy interpersonal boundaries or rational, fact-based beliefs was my job, and if I had done it, no one could have imposed their ideology or thinking on me or forced me to conform. I entirely own my own mind, thoughts, and beliefs; no one can take those from me unless I let them.

So sure I see religion as a great social harm, but it's also a paper tiger.

Not really. I was "saved" in revivals 3 times as a child and early teen, but somehow it never seemed to "take" for long.

USA! Putting the cult in culture since the 1950s.