- My mom read me a quote from my baby book not too long ago. She said that when I was 3, I told her..."I hope I don't be bad anymore." Kinda cute, unless you realize this was coming from the mind of a religiously traumatized toddler who thought there was a sky god, or a "loving heavenly father" as the church taught, who was going to send her to hell because she may not have prayed the right words for him to save her from all her sins, or he may not have heard her. I was terrified that no matter what I was supposed to do to get that eternal life in heaven, I was not going to get it "right enough" and I was going to be disqualified and burn in hell forever.
Nobody cares. Or at least, nobody cares enough to do anything.
I've proposed solutions to this problem before. I will never do so again.
I dunno... if I were to pick the faith with the biggest PR problems in the past 100 years it wouldn't be NXIVM or the Scientologists. You're talking about a social structure that gelled during the Inquisition. The Amish? A millenium newer than the Catholics.Nobody cares. Or at least, nobody cares enough to do anything.
Being raised catholic has left me with an interesting view of the world. I don't even realize that it's unique until I'm talking to another ex-catholic, and we start talking about the shame we inherited from well-meaning adults who wanted, more than anything, for us to live moral lives according to their traditions. I used to cry myself to sleep at night for all the sin I'd created. Something as simple as a white lie would send me into a spiral of self-loathing. Now, with the benefit of therapy and an adult mind, I can recognize the cognitive pattern of rumination. Nobody wanted me to self-flagellate like that. My priest and the sisters who taught me wanted me to be happy, but they didn't know (couldn't have known) how fragile my mind is. The flames of hell seemed so high when I could barely see over the pew, and the threat of eternal suffering is a hell of a thing to show to a kid just to teach him right from wrong.