Religious Trauma Syndrome?

Hello everyone. I feel a bit weird posting here since I wasn't diagnosed with PTSD. But I've always felt that there was more to my depression and anxiety -- some underlying cause that never got addressed in therapy. I believe this is why therapy didn't work for me. Then fairly recently I learned about a woman named Marlene Winell and her efforts to spread awareness of a newly-dubbed disorder, Religious Trauma Syndrome or RTS.

I'm just wondering if there is anyone else on these boards who believes they suffer from this condition. Much to my disappointment it wasn't included in the DSM V, so receiving a proper diagnosis feels impossible. Plus too many people -- including psychiatrists -- sincerely believe that religion is always a benign, positive force in everyone's lives; they're blind to the great harm it can cause, especially in oppressive, authoritarian and fundamentalist religions.

I grew up under the oppressive reign of Mormonism. I hated church from an early age but my parents wouldn't hear of it; when I finally told them at about 6 years of age that I didn't want to go to church, they got SO angry with me. I guess they thought it was a childish "phase" and wouldn't listen. I was forced to attend church and a multitude of church-related meetings weekly. I had to hide my disbelief and discontent for decades, terrified that I might be disowned and kicked out for voicing my own beliefs -- not an uncommon occurrence in Mormonism, unfortunately; I knew two people who ended up that way. The heavy emphasis on obedience and perfectionism wreaked havoc on my otherwise independent and curious nature. For years I was totally convinced that I was a despicable sinner, that I would never be good enough, that god hated me and that I was headed straight to hell (or Outer Darkness as Mormons call it.) There were so many doctrines and beliefs that I frankly disagreed with, but I couldn't do so openly. I lied for so many years, insisting that I believed in the church when I secretly despised it. I was a hypocrite, teaching things to others that I didn't believe in myself. I refused to let my sexuality be suppressed as a teen, even when I was constantly reminded that things like pornography and especially masturbation were abominable sins that would destroy my soul. The guilt was endless. And I had to lie regularly in "worthiness" interviews with disgusting older men "of authority" that I hardly knew, telling them I was "chaste" when in reality I was anything but.

The cognitive dissonance proved to be too much for me. Finally I just couldn't live the double life anymore. I was suicidal for a long time. I hated myself so much for my own hypocrisy. Unfortunately my parents convinced me to attend BYU, a university run by the same oppressive religion. I had to continue hiding my real feelings for four years so I wouldn't be expelled. But on the day of my graduation I vowed to never be chained down by Mormonism again. It felt so good to finally be free to be ME.

It's been 7 years since then, but the effects of religion haven't faded. Depression and anxiety still have a firm hold on me, despite medication and therapy. Though I admit that I couldn't really bring this problem up with my therapist because he was a Mormon and refused to acknowledge that it could be harmful. I haven't set foot in a Mormon building in all that time, yet I still don't feel free of their influence. My parents, whom I've lived with since graduation, are still believers which bothers me even though they accepted it when I finally came out to them as an atheist. Moreover I live in Utah, dubbed Mormon Central by some, so I can't escape hearing about it endlessly, on the news or just by word of mouth. I'm inundated in their shallow culture. I'm constantly haunted by the idea that one of the bishopric, the missionaries or just regular "ward members" will stop by and try to reactivate me. Or that my parents will decide to "save" me. Unlike most religions, Mormonism holds onto a person for life and beyond; they have this ridiculous process called "Name Removal" that you have to go through if you want to no longer be counted as a member, although I've heard from numerous sources that they never really remove your name from their records, just stamp it with "inactive" or something and won't release it until you're 110 years old.

I don't know what to do. I'm so incredibly sick of Mormonism that I can feel it physically, sometimes, in the pit of my stomach. I feel like I can't escape it, no matter what I do. I have nightmares about Mormonism all the time, where I'm trapped in the wardhouse and cannot escape. I need to put it all behind me and just move on but I cannot figure out how; it's been weighing on me my whole life!

I have gone through religious trauma when I was growing up. My parents were very conservative southern baptist evangelical, and I was never good enough in their eyes. My dad claimed that god was punishing me by letting demons attack me and that's why I had panic attacks. He said to stop praying to god because god will not help me anymore, and that once jesus returns I will not get a new body like everyone else because I deserve all the self injury scars that I did to myself. He said I was a disobedient kid and whenever I tried to be nice he said it would never make up for being bad. My parents were always in disbelief that I was ever a good enough christian to get into heaven. They punished me for my sexuality (I am pansexual), and believe I am going to hell. I am atheist now. There's nothing better I could have ever done for myself than to ditch religion all together. I am healing, slowly, but being an atheist is the best thing for me.

By the way, I have always feared god's punishment and I think that's what messes me up the most. That, and thinking I'm never good enough, always sinning, god's going to get me, etc. I even get delusions occasionally (I have schizoaffective disorder and get delusions and hallucinations) that god is going to come punish me and not let me get away. it is really scary. I am definitely traumatized by all that.

I, too, refused to suppress my sexual desires and masturbated even though I felt so much guilt afterwards that I would cut myself for punishment.

This is an interesting question. I, too, struggle with the concept of religion and question how much damage it caused me growing up, although for slightly different reasons than your own.

When I was younger my father was a Satanist, and my mother was... actually she was a bit of a spiritualist with Christian leanings I guess? She read the bible, but never identified strongly with any particular church. On the other hand, she seemed to believe in tarot card readings and focused crystal rituals, which she kept hidden from other Christians. Later I grew to understand why. My brothers' mother was Jewish, and she made it clear that she wanted the boys raised in a proper religion. Somehow my father got them involved in the Mormon Church. I'm not really sure if this is because there weren't any nearby Jewish communities to where we lived at the time, or because he didn't want to deal with the Jewish community. He was pretty solidly drunk at that point in our lives so maybe he thought the fact that Mormons had synagogues like the Jews made them close enough? Like I said, I really don't know what the thought process was there. I was pretty young, so I don't really remember having any formal religious structure during my formative years, which is probably why moving in with my grandparents after the divorce came as such a shock.

"Bible-thumping Baptist" is the phrase that springs to mind there.

Needless to say, I had a number of questions about the whole bible thing, but felt penalized for having to ask, and punished if I argued or questioned in a way that "doubted God's word" or "undermined the teachings of the church." I went from having no real religious beliefs to being told I had to believe and behave a certain way or else I was going to be thrown into a pit of fire for misbehavior. I had been raised prior to that point with a strict enforcement of consequences for misbehavior. In retrospect, the "punishments" I had received from my father while growing up were over the top and abusive, but at least they correlated with my behavior in a way that I could understand and I was never punished twice for the same transgression. To my young mind, everything in the world ever seemed capable of getting you thrown in a pit of fire in the Christian paradigm with no logical connection between the sin and the punishment. This was unfortunate as I took following rules very seriously because I always associated punishments with physical attacks. With this new religion, the attacks I found myself under weren't physical so I had no knowledge of how to protect myself or even know what could trigger an attack from an authority figure. If I committed a "sin" even without realizing it (and how could I possibly know ahead of time what would be considered a sin when the rules seemed to shift from day to day or the person talking?) I was punished without a clear explanation. Also, when a punishment is done, it should be done and everyone moves on, and if you get punished once you shouldn't keep getting beaten up for it. I would be punished by an adult, but then I was also going to be punished with eternal burning after I died too? How freaking unfair was that? I really grew to hate that church, and I have yet to find any church that I do like. I'm willing to go to a church so that I can't say, "oh I hate that" when I don't know what they teach, but I suppose so long as they follow the teachings of the Bible I'm probably not going to belong to any church.

When I was twelve, I sat down and read the bible front to back while I was grounded (from reading) by my foster mother. Luckily she wasn't comfortable telling me I couldn't read that book, so I finally managed to read the full source material for myself. I realized very quickly that not only was I, not a Christian, I had absolutely no desire to be one. I went back and read it again when I was older. Nope, still not buying it. It has some good messages, but it all tends to be hidden beneath some truly appalling ones.

I'm finally to a point where I can smile and thank anyone who says "God bless you" because I figure well wishes whatever the form is welcome, but religious discussions or invitations make me very anxious and I just shut down from the conversation at that point. Ultimately, I follow a sort of pagan based spiritualism rather than any particular religious belief, but I do appreciate how screwed up religious mores can leave you.

you are correct here in america there is no such diagnostic labeling called religious trauma syndrome. trauma caused by ones religion is treated in the same way as trauma caused by any other type of trauma (physical, sexual, emotional) this is because the problems that come from being traumatized in ones religion can and does happen with in any other traumatic situation...nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, depression,....

when I was in a situation where someone was abusing me under the premise of religion what helped me was taking a break from all religions, therapy, meds for the anxiety and other symptoms, then when i was ready I researched various religions until i found one I was happy with.

I had a very traumatic religious experience mainly because of lack of communication. That's it the failure of people that was more healed than I to keep me informed. Today, I will have none of that from an religious church. It is very easy for me to forgive, I have bigger fish to fry rather than having this real big vendetta against a church. Given all of the variables to easy to see how this could have happened. It got worst outside of the church in neighborhoods where I lived in 2013, when they took that saying 'being your brother's keeper' the wrong way. Sometimes people's concern and protection is really meant as hate. There were words thrown my way not nice words in the church joins and kid like behavior. No body got psychically contacted, although one time it was close.

I say, trust the Lord lean not to your own understanding and a direct path is what we pray for. Forgive, move on. If necessary bring this part of you into therapy to discuss. I don't think a T can make your religious decisions, but the man thing is personal forgiveness. In the Bible showing you how none of us are perfect but also removing yourself from a toxic situation, church included. It is ashamed especially for those who grew up with religion and hold those ones to higher standards. I can understand how that would have you shaken but get yourself back out there, there are plenty of churches doing the right thing!

Hey newday. You were very polite and encouraging, but I'm still really rather uncomfortable with this response, so I'm going to bow out of this thread.

Peace out, OneInBillions. I hope you find an answer beyond the, "Sure, religion can and has been a source of trauma in horrible ways that get ignored or brushed under the rug *cough*Crusades/Inquisitions/Witchtrials/colonizationofAmerica/PrayCamps/and overtabuseandmicro-aggressionsthatarejustifiedbybiblepassages*cough* because the vast majority of the populace identify as practitioners of this religious sect," that you would get from me, or the "But have you tried other churches because- you know, God would want you to be in a church," that you might start to get from other posters. Neither is really going to help your issues.

If you have a T you can bring it up with them if you're comfortable discussing religion with them, but your best bet is to find out whether religion is a thing you need in your life and what all options are available. If religion is something that makes you uncomfortable in conversation, feel free to ask people to excuse you while you step out, or consider learning about other coping methods that are good for PTSD in general. It'll take some time and research on your part, but making an informed decision to choose what you believe and what you don't might be an option for dealing with any bad experiences you had with religion in the past. Maybe you should take a step back and read up on different religions to find one that fits, or you might choose not to have a religion at all. Have you ever heard of "Free Will"? Not the concept, but the song by Rush, I mean.

"You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose freewill"

I was spiritually abused after getting a divorce after 31 years of abuse; I fiound an amazing t (expert in church abuse, rare)...There are a lot of books on the subject....google spiritual abuse....one is by Jeff van Vonderen; you will find how common it is. xo

Here you go....https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...piritual+abuse

You don't seem to understand; I hate religion. I don't believe in any god or "lord" -- I think the whole thing is a fabrication of man designed to keep people "good" and especially "obedient." I know firmly that I'm through with religion. I did study various other religions in my high school and college years, especially Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto and other eastern religions. But I still didn't feel comfortable with any of them. They still asked me to put "faith" in things I found ridiculous.

Finally in college I read Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" and I found my path -- I'm an atheist through and through. I want to be totally irreligious but it's hard when there's so much religion in the media and in the world in general, and it can be extremely pushy. Especially here in Utah, I've had people just assume I'm Mormon and ask me where I went on my "mission" -- I hate having to tell them I'm atheist, because they get this look in their eye like I'm the devil incarnate and then distance themselves from me as much as possible. There's very real, illogical hate for atheists in this country, and that bothers me like crazy.

So thank you for your kind words and advice but frankly I disagree with your worldview. No church is doing "the right thing" because they're all lying for your benefit, and that's not something I will tolerate.

I'm sorry he scared you off; I really appreciated your comments. And yeah, I loved Rush in high school -- haven't listened to them in awhile so this is a great chance, thanks

Same here; atheism is the best thing that ever happened to me. I was conditioned in the Mormon Church to believe that "apostates," and especially atheists, will be severely punished. But finally I allowed myself to let go of all those negative thoughts and decided to believe what I actually felt to be true, and that was all it took. I think I've really been a closet atheist all along -- I thought it was ridiculous as a child when I realized that all the adults around me believed that the fanciful stories I heard every week in church ACTUALLY HAPPENED. I just... never saw the point of it all. Yes I may have been taught morality but it was all too constrictive for me, a black-and-white view that doesn't work in the REAL world where EVERYTHING is a shade of grey.

I hope no one takes over this thread to try to convert you back to the church/religion/christianity. That's not the point of this thread. Those of us who have been hurt spiritually are very sensitive to that kind of thing. It's best that I don't associate at all with religion in order to keep healing. And it's good to have a place to voice your opinion without being judged for it. I'm glad I found this thread. I agree with you that there is no point in religion. I don't believe in anything that has to do with the spiritual realm, such as gods or souls/spirits. I believe all we have is the physical realm. And that's all we really need. This thread needs to be a sanctuary for us to come and vent and share our stories about what religion has done to us. Thank you for this thread.

I'm a lifelong atheist and I grew up in the South surrounded by Southern Baptists. I hated it when people invited me to their churches or retreats or when they asked about my faith. I felt like a freak but my beliefs never wavered.

I met someone who has PTSD due to his Mormon upbringing. He described it as a cult. He was always paranoid that everyone around him was Mormon, maybe keeping tabs on him. He also had nightmares, flashbacks and dissociation. He was unsure if he had been abused by men in the church.

I don't know how you would do this, but I think you need to find a therapist who isn't Mormon. Otherwise, he'll be biased or you'll believe he is biased. Also, I don't know if this is feasible, but I feel like it might be helpful for you to move to another state for awhile. Take a contract job for a year, get away from the constant reminders of your oppression. I know it's easier said than done, but I just wanted to put it out there. I live in a pretty atheist/agnostic area now, and it's such a relief.

im not going into details but my abuser (sexual) used God as a reason it was justified. That probably had a lot to do with my disgust of religion and hate of those who justify their behavior by quoting myths and legends. I constantly question that which everybody seemed to blindly accept. I've never heard of this but I agree that religion is a considerable source of trauma whether or not it's recognized.

I am having a lot of difficulty now with my Church. I attended it because it was across the street and at that time I was using a walker due to three surgeries. I kept going and got very involved because I loved some of the people an the Ministers. However my views are very liberal and the church is not. It is a Baptist Church. I have followed the "take what you want, but leave the rest" philosophy from Al-anon but it no longer works for me. I go to church and am angry and get no peace. Its easy to say leave but I am so intertwined now with the church, that I would loose good people...so I am struggling with what is right. I know a church I can go too but its difficult to break from something I am used too and also actually supported

Hi there, OneInBillions! Welcome.

To come back to your original question:

Quote:

I'm just wondering if there is anyone else on these boards who believes they suffer from this condition.

I don't think it's necessary the label that is important. But I do believe that growing up in a strict religious system of any kind can be harmful and that the effects can still be felt/experienced much later in life.

For me it was important to find a therapist who is empathetic, who "gets it" and realizes that the aftermaths of growing up in a fundmentalist (kindof) setting are real:
selfworth, selfcompassion, a sense of hope/of a future that is worth living, a sense of identity etc - all those are areas where a lot is missing for me.
I found it important to be able to talk about my "religious hangups" in therapy. To rant about the million weird things that can trigger me in every day life. To work on strategies how I can nuture a sense of self, of identity, of allowing myself to "just be" without having to "prove myself" all the time...

And believe me: Things do get better. Slowly, one step at a time, sometimes barely recognizable. And my therapist has been a wonderful travel companion and big support on this way.

Probably it would be helpful to find a therapist who you feel you can really open up to regarding your issues with religion. It does make a huge difference. I'm aware that this might be difficult, since you live in Utah. But I'm sure it's worth the effort to search for someone. When looking for a T I even interviewed them about their views on religion/faith. Some would talk about it openly (I explained why I felt the need to know/ask this, since it is rather personal...), those who refused to answer I never went back to. Those who said they are a practising believer of XYZ faith I never went back to either. I even found a buddhist therapist extremely triggering once he got into "preaching mode" (he taught mindfulness meditation and I took a course with him...)

I found the work of Marlene Winell really helpful. Maybe it's because of her first hand experience combined with her psychological/therapeutic insight. When I first read about her concept of religious trauma syndrome (RTS) I thought "at last there is someone who knows and understands and puts it into words..." I actually made my therapist read the articles on RTS, she had a good grasp of what is going on beforehand, but I believe that reading the articles made her realize how big and central those issues are, that they go really deep and right to the core.
I really recommend that you read her book "Leaving the Fold" if you havn't already.

FYI there is a group here on PC called former fundamentalists that might be helpful:
http://forums.psychcentral.com/group...entalists.html

Wishing you all the best on your journey, c_r

Sorry newday, you are missing the point.
It's not just about church and/or other believers. It is the teachings and the core values of religion/s that are damaging.

My sense of self/of identity/of self-worth is more than stifled due to growing up in an environment that kept telling me:
For the first 20 years of my life I suppressed all independent thoughts and feelings, because the tensions would get too big (>> cognitive dissonance). It took a huge personal crisis and a massive "leap of faith" to leave the faith behind and to hope against all odds that there would be a life worth living somewhere out there.

So please don't tell people here to forgive, to believe, that they havn't found the true xtianity/faith yet, that there is a right church somewhere out there. That is not helpful.

Like OneInABillion, for me those faith systems are manmade manipulations, in order to control, to gain/preserve power and influence, to keep people in their place and to keep them submissive and obedient.

We don't want nor need to be proselytized or re-converted.

Hello, fellow atheist here. I spend 10 long years in Utah, it really sucked when I was there. I can't imagine going through something like you did. You should move out of state. I moved to Nevada and while it's a red state you wouldn't believe the difference in people. Even a drunken reprobate has their own mind, they may not use it for much but it isn't under the control of a bizarre cult. I hadn't been in a society where so many people that had their own minds and personalities for 10 years, I can't tell you how refreshing that was. Right now your in an unhealthy environment surrounded by a toxic influence. Believe you me even the Mormons here are different than the bizarre creatures that inhabit Utah. I think your right about religious trauma the only reason it isn't a thing in psychiatry is politics.

I was raised in a small fundamentalist cult growing up and left the church when I was 18 and explored different religions for a while. When I was 30 I joined the Seventh-Day Adventist Church which is another cult. I left the SDA about 5 years later after working for the local conference and seeing the corruption in the leadership.

Throughout my adult life, when I moved in with my parents, usually because of a marriage & financial problem, I have attended their church, the church that they raised me in. I only attended to prove to my father that I had straightened out my life and was trying to do what was right. I hated it, just like I did when I was a kid. The spiritual abuse would throw me into panic attacks. I would experience self-loathing, hating myself for my every perceived flaw.

The biggest mistakes I made: Returning to the original cult where I had been abused, joining a new cult (the SDA church), and TALKING to members of the original cult. Even the ones who I like, cannot be trusted because they are brainwashed and will judge me accordingly, they will tell my parents what I said, and they will ALWAYS take my parents' side against me. They will try to manipulate me into believing that I am wrong and that I need to return to their church. That is ALWAYS their motive. Protecting their church, their religion - NOT helping people, not protecting the innocent.

Many children, myself included, were abused in this church, and it was denied and covered up.

At this point in life, my faith in God is strong, but I have no faith in church whatsoever. I am terrified to step foot into a church. I am perfectly capable of praying and reading the Bible myself and do not need some self-proclaimed expert (pastor) to tell me what the Bible says.

The things that these people did, were not what Jesus would do. I am not sure what God they are following, but it isn't mine.

I was spiritually abused. Church Abuse Poetry Therapy - A haven for spiritual healing..... is what came out of it. I amstil a believer, but haven't been back to church since it happened 12 years ago.There are many books on spiritual books, one by Jeff van Vonderen is excellent.

I'm not sure that my set of symptoms would exactly fit into the description of Religious Trauma Syndrome, if only for reasons of technicality: the organization I got sucked into for a time was certainly cult-like and ideology-rich, but not religious per se.

What I did end up with as a result is what is now called "Other Specified Dissociative Disorder" (OSDD) in the DSM-5 (represents a mild upgrade of specificity, since I previously fell under "not otherwise specified"), in which one of the features I suffer from is "Identity disturbance due to prolonged and intense coercive persuasion: Individuals who have been subjected to intense coercive persuasion (e.g., brainwashing, thought reform, indoctrination while captive, torture, long-term political imprisonment, recruitment by sects/cults or by terror organizations) may present with prolonged changes in, or conscious questions of, their identity."

One of the most basic and most troubling problems of deep group involvement can be the effect of "identity fusion", a construct proposed by William Swann. I've found this diagram from one of his books helpful in considering my own level of identity fusion as it pertains to former group involvement.

"Pictorial measure of fusion: Please circle the letter below the picture that best represents your relationship with this group."

From: Swann, W.B. Jr., Gómez, A., Seyle, C.D., Morales, J.F. & Huici, C. (2009). Identity fusion: The interplay of personal and social identities in extreme group behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 995–1011.

I've found it to be a lot of work to unravel what was so underhandedly bestowed upon my unconscious workings. It's hard for people who haven't witnessed it firsthand to understand just how pervasive it is, and those who don't get it seem to really recoil from the concepts involved. I've found it really important to separate the wheat from the chaff where finding a soft place to land with discussing this particular area of interpersonal reality is concerned. I have a very few friends whom I can talk to about it at all without them becoming alienated as a matter of course. The one with a PhD in sociology turns out to be the most capable, and receptive.

Here's a link to a site that outlines an array of complications and problems common to many situations of group dynamics: Theories about groups

Very best of luck to the OP and to anyone else struggling with the effects of such situations.

Hi OneInBillions, welcome to PC and the PTSD forums.

You asked a good question and I think that you may very well struggle with PTSD or complex PTSD that you have always been told was Depression or Anxiety.

I see no problem with an individual asking if the religion their parents raised them in or some individual used as an excuse for abusing them in some way could be part of what traumatized them where they ended up struggling as you and others here have discribed. It's unfortunate but many people who are dysfunctional tend to turn to a religion and end up using a religion in some very dysfunctional and emotionally abusive ways.

It is not just religion that is used for this kind of dysfunctional vehicle, but also how children are educated and how society tends to fall into promoting judgements that tend to do a lot of harm. And having no religion can be just as bad because people can be dysfunctional with or without religion.

Look at the horrific things ISIS is doing and these people think it's right and through their distorted religious beliefs think they will be rewarded for these horrific violent acts they are committing. I also happened to see a video clip of how the Palastinians are now teaching their little children to kill and mame any child or person they can from Isreal. It's unbelievable to see a little three year old holding a knife and being encouraged "killing is good".

So to answer your question YES a child can suffer from abuse in the name of a religion and be traumatized.

But that doesn't mean all Religion is bad, a lot depends on how that religion is used that can become so very harmful to ANYONE.

There are people who practice religion in very positive ways that help them respect others and love their families and develop caring communities. A religion can be meant to offer love and respect and accept whatever is not perfect in self as no one ever is perfect and that's ok. Human beings do best with UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, when that takes place then human beings develop a very healthy sense of worthiness that helps them become strong thriving individuals that do much better at living their lives with a sense of well being and purpose. It has been proven that when a child is not exposed to that unconditional love, they suffer in many ways that can end up causing them to have all different kinds of anxiety disorders and also struggle to connect with others in healthy ways. In the sixties experiements with primates were done where primates were not allowed to have the warmth and love from a mother, the results were devastating and these monkeys could not function normally in the typical group of monkeys. It is not much different in human beings.

The route of many who struggle with complex PTSD comes from their childhood where they did not have the kind of healthy nurturing presence that all human children need to thrive well. Often the result is a deep sense of unworthiness and shame which is NOT THE CHILD'S FAULT, nor the adult that child grows up to become. However, often what also happens is that these children can try to fill that unmet need by getting involved in a religion or participating in a mindset where they get involved in filling that need by doing some kind of community service where they are in the control of providing for others what they themselves never got. That too can become unhealthy because it ends up becoming a path of organizing with hovering over that continues to inhibit healthy growth and indepence in others. These individuals may use a religion more for "power over or judgment of" because of how that had been deeply impressed or imprinted on that individual.

Anything that focuses on attaining perfection is unhealthy be it a religion or education or something considered "perfect" in a society. There is NOTHING, NOTHING what so ever in nature and any living thing that is EVER perfect.

KQiao, u speak as if we've meet entirely possible I had some goons follow me online a victim of cyber crime. Maybe the writer was speaking ranting not talking to u unless of course we've meet before..Which is it?