Sorry to hear this, I know what it is like to be let down by my mom and dad. I lived in uncaring foster homes. The thing that helps me is not to blame God for things but to reach out to him instead and let him be the replacement to what you missed when others let you down

I loath religion. I also had a traumatic childhood, brought up by Catholic fanatics. I don't necessarily blame them, because that's the extreme way they were brought up, and their minds were never quite able to escape that box.

God is good, Satan is evil, blame the latter for everything, and revere the former.

Catholicism is the true path of Jesus Christ, all other religions are merely an invention of man, and they(non-Catholics) will all burn in hell. (I hated anyone who wasn't a Catholic, and once beat up a kid because he said something bad about god. I was about 11, I think)

Democrats and Liberals are good, Republicans / Conservatives are bad.

I reject religion all together. And it makes me sick when people blame Satan for their own shortcomings or failures. I believe all religions are an invention of man. Science has already torn most of their holy writ to pieces. I reject both liberalism and conservatism as a sham to enslave fools. Two sides of the same coin. I don't believe in politicians, and I don't believe in this rotten system.

I agree with Demon - all religions are man made and have nothing
to do with god. So much evil has been done in the name of religion.
I had monstrous parents and often wonder why god gave me to them.
Surely he knew what would happen to me. And he did it anyway. There
are many many times when I purely hate god for giving me this life.

I'm sorry you had to go through a bad childhood, it's not fair at all.
I don't know how to get past it, it colors everything in my life so I can
imagine that it still effects you. I wish god didn't give children to bad
parents but he does. When I die I will ask him WHY?

I would hold the people accountable who did me wrong instead of God. He didn't abuse you they did but each person has their views about God and not everyone will want him in their lives.

if religion works for YOU, eyesalve, that's the important thing; everyone needs some sort of philosophy to get through life.

i'm sorry about you living in foster homes; that is probably worse than actual dysfunctional parents.

penntucky, I just try to look at things in such a way to keep myself reasonably healthy. If I am not careful and let myself think any which way I could get unbearably sad. It is not worth it to me so I fight it.

I can relate to this. When I was a kid, my father used to make me pray for forgivness after he got done beating the crap out of me every day. I would also secretly pray for guidance about how I could improve my situation. I remeber my nieghbors were God-fearing catholics. I wonder why they never helped?

I eventually got desperate enought to run away from home. When I was homeless as a kid, I would pray for guidance still. I admit, I also prayed for food because I went days without eating, and shelter because it was the middle of winter. I also went to several churces asking for assistance. Most of them called the cops on me.

My wife dedicated her life to helping people, and never hurt anyone. It was always selfless. She did it because she cared about people and would do anything to assist a stranger. She passed away a few years ago. I'm not saying God took her for no reason. My wife didn't pray much either. She was too busy working her ass of to actually help people in need. She taught me more about helping others than the bible ever did.

Don't get me wrong - I believe in God. I just don't believe in organized religion or the power of prayer. It's very hard for me to take anyone seriously when they start a sentence by saying "Pray on it" or if they mumble thousand year old words written by other people who lived in a very different time.

I'm sure I've offended some people. My apoligies. My experiences with prayer and religion are sadly very real, and they have never helped. What helps is actually helping people. I believe that's what God would want.

Awesome post, Locke. TY ! ..

signed, life-time fan of J.D.
Salinger

I know how that feels. Sorry you went through all that. Today as an adult you have better choices; there's no need for you to go to nay church, bind yourself to any believes, and you can believe in anything or nothing if you want. It's your right and your freedom from religious abuse. it's ok for you to like or dislike any of the things that were imposed to you in the name of religion or "God".

"Keep what you feel is useful and healthy and let the rest go", was what I did in my healing.

There's a nice book entitled "When God becomes a drug". That book addresses the issue of spiritual abuse and helps people sort tings out in terms of healthy spirituality. I highly recommend that book.

"crushed testicles"? In the bible? Whow! Traumatizing!

I'm new here so first of all, Hello to all and I"m glad I found this site.

I wasn't raised in a religious home, but at the age of 17 I "found" God and proceeded to live within a religious cult for the next 15 years and it took over 15 years to find my way out mentally and emotionally.

This Christian cult demanded that we not "fellowship" with others that did not think or act like we did. Woman had to wear pants and we had to always submit to men no matter what. We could not watch television, play cards or board games, could never go to movies, listen to any so called secular music. It was so controlled that we didn't even fellowship with other christians.

The church had a bible college and so many of us would travel to recruit other potential students around the U.S and even to other countries. At the final count the church had over 4,000 people.

What happened to get me out, was the pastor was finally cornered for his sexual impropriety and boom! The church fragmented into those who favored the pastor and defended him, saying that the rumors and acqusations were false, and then the other side who sided with those who claimed he did make inappropriate advances on these women.

The fall of the church coincided with my husband coming out as a gay man (many came out after the fall) and I was left with 3 kids and no where to go.

This then started my still ongoing journey of working towards finding my way back into the general population and it has not been easy.

I can remember trying to figure out what to tell people if they asked about my past. I can remember feeling like I had been living on another planet and truthfully and I honestly feared everyone and everything.

I couldn't relate to normal people. I didn't know how to carry on a normal conversation. I didn't even know who was president, couldn't talk about current events cuz I didn't know what they were.

I could go on and on about my journey towards wholeness, which is of course still ongoing, but the bottom line is that the years of isolation both in the church and out of the church searching for who I really am, has been harder than I ever imagined.

Leaving the church left me with no friends and no where to go but down. Crawling back up out the abyss was work and still is and now, at the ripe age of 58, I am finally getting hungry for the company of others. I am finally willing to let my guard down to let others in.

This board is a start. Coming to the coffee shop to just be in the presence of others is a start. Being in a program for my Borderline Personality Disorder (program is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) is helping me to move past the inertia of isolation.

Finally, I have, over the years managed to make peace with my past and keep my faith in a higher power alive.

Blessings

the jehovahs witnesses and their perversions and violence are another good one for abuse they also have a thing about children esp; "little boys" and their "god" can I straighten some things out in public.
I never said I was doing that , I had said no repeatedly.
and when I say no it means no. I had told the medics here when asked
"no I wasnt happy" , and the police who also complained of the way it was violating my conscience to do wrong, I also agreed.
I had consented to any medical procedures (don't forget it wasn't my family that time just them, proving they only wanted their way.
and as I said were not being jw,s. savvy English mr witness ??????
and no they are insane who think they have something to do with people, like cult kidnap.
some of them then left and went elsewhere and started with the other lot again. ultimatey get rid of religion s a good answer.

My dad hung out at the bars and was drunk most of the time too. He never went to church with us. But i remember being left in the car many a time while he went down the street to have a quick one which lasted anywhere from an hour to forever. My mom used to tell him to pick us up from skating on Saturday night. He never came of course and we walked two miles home in the dark. There were no street lights in the country so when I say dark I mean pitch black dark. I used to cry after waiting until everyone left and we were still standing around for a ride. On our way home we'd pass the bar where our dad was drinking. We'd just keep on walking. He'd get so mad when he went to pick us up long after the place was closed and we weren't there. Like we were going to wait around like idiots until he showed up. My mom would keep sending him to pick us up every Saturday night and every time we had to walk home in the dark. I have forgiven him and my mom for the stupid way they thought and raised us. You can only get so much mileage out of your childhood crap then it's up to you if you want to keep holding onto the bitterness over it. My brother still does. I've moved on and have peace about it.

What bible do you read from?? I'm sorry you had bad experiences with your dad. Not sure what that has to do with church. There is plenty of evil in the world, inside some churches and out.

Ah, church, a hospital for sinners...

I'm sorry your dad had his "priorities", but by going to church it sounds like he was at least making an ATTEMPT to atone for his sins of drunkenness and neglecting his family through worship in a congregation!