The More Unpleasant a Religion is the Closer it is Followed

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This is very often the case. Perhaps it’s some leftover Puritanism. If something is pleasant or enjoyable, then it’s not good. Clearly, such people who are enjoying themselves aren’t doing enough or making enough sacrifices for God.

In such churches, there’s lots of competition to see who can follow things the closest, who can label the most things as bad or immoral and avoid them, who can spend the most time praying, reading the Bible, preaching, having lousy attitudes towards women, clearly avoiding birth control since they have 10 kids (if I had 4 or more kids I’d have trouble viewing each child after that as a blessing), or doing whatever practices your specific group dictates. (The best, most spiritual parents are those who have beaten their kids into silent submission and stillness.)

People are more intent upon following the letter of the law than the spirit of the law.

What are some unpleasant customs and beliefs you grew up with or observed?

I see that you've read up on Pastor Steven Anderson and the Faithful Word Baptist Church.

Yeah I think that is why Christianity and Islam have taken over not just because these religions were forced on these people but also because other religions don't say you are condemned to Hell.

For me, it was all the misogyny (but that’s obvious by this point!), having to believe that the Bible should be followed as closely as possible (after knowing everything that’s in it like Deuteronomy 22:23,24), and having to shun family or friends at times or being shunned.

Things get nasty when people believe the Bible (and other ancient texts) in its entirety should be closely followed.

There is also "Hypocrisy". The old "Do as I say and not as I do" mantra. The idea that a person can lie, kill, steal, et cetera as much as he or she wants, as long as the sin is committed in the Name of the Lord.

Another is the "Sunday Saint Syndrome". this takes two forms: (1) I knew girls who would put out like crazy on Saturday nights, knowing that on Sunday morning, they could confess their sins, be forgiven, and then be guilt-free until the following Saturday night. (2) I knew people who thought nothing of committing as many sins as possible from the time they left the church on Sunday morning, to the time they walked back into church the following Sunday -- as long as they were "Regular Church-Goers", they believed that they were saved.

So how the heck did I end up as a church elder?

Is there a source for that? I don't doubt it, but I hear more about younger generations rejecting organized religion more than I do embracing it. However, it definitely makes sense; when certain religions rely on fear tactics to get their messages across, people are conditioned to fearfully accept it "or else"...nothing like the threat of eternal damnation to keep you walking in a rigidly straight line. It's a textbook abusive relationship based on emotional manipulation.

I was never raised in any religion, but my grandparents were Jehovah's Witnesses and whenever I spent time with them as a youth they'd try to push it on me. If I acted up, I'd be threatened that they wouldn't make it to the "paradise world". When I went to their Kingdom Hall meetings, it was just rants about how evil and wicked the world is and how JWs were the only ones who knew "the truth" and so on. I never saw religion as a spirituality, I never understood the loving nature of God, I just saw it as an extremely repressive cult and thankfully I was able to walk away from it.

Later on in my life, meeting "regular" Christians was the impetus for me discovering and exploring "religion" as it related to theology, spirituality, etc. rather than as a strictly social construct, and even later on in my life that led to me embracing I guess what's now called "progressive Christianity", which explicitly tries to avoid and undo the harm caused by modern evangelicals.

nah, it's not leftover puritanism, - the puritans didn't invent cognitive dissonance.

basically, the more you have to give up to be member of a group, the harder it is to admit to yourself that you've given up all of this for nothing. Once you have given birth to ten children because you believed that contraception is sin, this rule, the family you've created, that's your identity. Looking at your ten children and saying: yeah, actually, I think contraception would be okay is basically admitting that you don't love all your ten children, that the pregnancies and the pain you went through could have been avoided and it's your own fault that you had to go through this....

that's why sects need this strict adherence to rules, plus giving up your worldly possessions - it makes it very hard to go back.

when you look at doomsday cults who've predicted the end of the world, and then it didn't happen - they didn't disband - they doubled down on their claims, often coming up with some reasons for why they were wrong in their calculation and coming up with a new date for the end of the world soon after.

but it's also how some people stay in a profession they don't like - because they worked hard to get into it, they studied etc. and now they've invested all this time and money. so how do you bridge the gap between your expectation and reality? by telling yourself that things really are great....


also: there's hell in all sorts of religions. but christianity and islam are proselitizing, hinduism and judaism are not. they are exclusive, almost.
buddhism isn't proselitizing in the same way either, although anyone can become a buddhist. but in christianity and islam, members are socially rewarded for growing the community.

That if Jesus could suffer on the cross I could suffer for an hour- When I complained about how the clothes I was forced to wear to church physically hurt me.

We don't go to church to enjoy it When I complained about how I felt church was boring and I wasn't getting any use out of it. My mom sure seemed to be enjoying herself at church.

It's un ladylike for a women or young girl to wear shorts to church When I complained about having to wear pants to church. I wore shorts even in winter. I would have been fine with skirt. If God's so uncomfortable with the female body than why was I born naked? Why did He even create females?

Years later I went to another church where the pastor was a woman and people weren't judged on what they wore.

well... it would almost HAVE to be that way.

If I started a religion, and one of the tenets was that you had flog yourself with chains, and wear a hair shirt for six hours each week I would drive off many potential converts. But if you were one of the few converts I did get you would be HAVE to be a diamond hard fanatical follower of my cult to put up with that s**t. So I would have fewer but "better" (ie more loyal) followers.

@naturalplastic:
you're making it sound like the nigerian prince email scam - who's stupid enough to fall for that, right?
Well, the select few who are will be stupid enough to pay you repeatedly, not just once.

But cults tend to be a bit more clever - I mean, you have to spend half your life in Scientology until you hear of spacelord Xenu for the first time. They don't just smack you over the head with this. They lure you in with psychological counseling.
Of course, that is preselecting for people with issues, willing and desperate enough to pay for unconventional solutions.