TW: This essay has mentions of homophobia, sexism/misogyny, religious trauma syndrome, suicide, all kinds of abuse, and SA/rape.

Ah, religion. It can be a touchy subject for many people, for both people who love it and people who hate it. Quite controversial, really. No matter which religion it is, it's all just belief systems which were written in books by people who claimed to be able to speak to Gods. And even claimed that Gods ever existed in the first place. "There has been no proof that He doesn't exist," some say. But there has never been effective, sufficient proof that He does either.

Each individual person's religious rights are to be respected, of course. I have no problem with someone choosing to follow a particular religion themself, as long as they are respectful and don't force it onto anybody else (I have plenty of friends who are progressive, respectful Christians who don't force their beliefs on anyone, are part of or support the LGBTQ+ community, and believe in women's reproductive rights). It's the large-scale social institution of religion that I have a problem with. It's the megachurches that thrive on using force and fear-mongering for profits that I have a problem with. Most often this is seen in Christianity, but other religions are capable of it too. All of them are capable of using force and fear-mongering to get people to believe as the ultra-believers, church leaders, and large religious organizations are. But why is it that these tactics are so much more prevalent within Christian communities?

The answer lies in its history. Christianity was first brought to America by European colonizers centuries ago, and the Salem Witch trials, many counts of violence against Pagans, and the religious supremacy we still see today have only solidified Christianity as the dominant religion in the Americas, Europe, Oceania, and parts of Africa. It's so dominant because of the colonizers' such strict laws in the past that would execute or torture anyone who did not follow the religion. Hence, essentially the gaslighting, scaring, and forcing people into following Christianity. With this rough history, Christian leaders today still use tactics like this to scare people into following "the gospel," "the word of God," or the Christian Bible. Only today, it's at a more subtle level. While there are no longer "witch" burnings (or if there were, they would most likely and hopefully send you to prison if you did burn a "witch"), the influence of Christianity is still so strong to still allow for widespread misogyny and systemic hatred toward racial minorities, disabled people, LGBTQ+ people, and any person who publicly expresses that they are not a Christian to continue occurring.

On top of all that, religious trauma today is very prevalent among teens and millennials. From thousands of Catholic church leaders being exposed for raping little kids, to ex-Mormons coming out with their stories of the harm that purity culture and being isolated from any person outside the temple does, to ex-Jehovah's Witnesses breaking free from the teachings from childhood that they are to be seen and not heard or that corporal punishment is a form of love, to the children who have been scared into submission to the faith by the idea of hell, and to the protests today happening in Iran against the ultra-Islamic regime after a woman was killed by "morality police" for not wearing her hijab the right way. All of these things and teachings can cause religious trauma syndrome, or struggles with one's religious faith or with leaving the religion. But of course, every person's journey with religion or lack thereof is different.

And again, it's the megachurches that thrive on using force and fear-mongering for profits which often cause the trauma. They love to spread false statements about the religion and cherry-pick verses out of the holy book to fit their own personal narrative or defend bigotry. That's my rage in religion, when people use it as a mask to hide behind while being simultaneously hateful and harmful to children. People with religious trauma whose stories I listen to and follow on social media have often reported being so much happier and feeling so much more free after leaving their faith behind and rebuilding their lives.

Those people are the ones that give religion a bad name. Whose teachings, sermons, and actions have resulted in hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people, suicides among the community, traumatized many women and girls by treating them as if they are objects and only worth their bodies, and resulted in the deaths and tortures of innocent people under the guise of converting them.

There's no harm in making the decision for yourself to follow a particular religion. As long as it fulfills you and makes you happy, that is wonderful. I won't try to talk you out of it. But at the same time, do the research yourself and simply be respectful of others' beliefs. "I don't like that because it's against my religion." Okay. Then don't do it. But you can't tell another person not to do that thing because they may not believe in your religion.

Religion and respect can go hand-in-hand; they're not mutually exclusive. There are still a lot of religious people who do a lot of good and are respectful to the people around them. It's okay to have rage against a religion that has hurt you in the past. Rage and religion can go hand-in-hand as well and are not mutually exclusive. But there is the other kind of rage in religion that's not okay, where the extremists hide behind it as a mask to get away with hurting others.