Except a lot of folks can’t. Especially children. Here’s a book and a movie a friend of mine who moved to Portland from Utah to escape that hell of a religion. So fuck off.
<3 Hugs
I'm glad you didn't follow through on your plans.
I recently read Saving Alex, if you want a good cry with a happy ending.
Gay exmormons are the best exmormons. (I might be a little bit biased)
"Christian" is too broad a term here. It would be better categorized as majority of conservative Christians have a seething hatred of LGBTQ's. The majority of THOSE types of Christians absolutely hate them. They put out materials to degrade them in the most vile ways possible and make up complete lies about them We constantly hear how they would murder gays if they could. How they should be rounded into camps because "they can't procreate and would all die off". One of that pastor's congregation members tried to defend him and failed in hilarious manner. They wailed at a major, conservative convention about how should sit naked in a pile of caw manure while smearing it all over their bodies and faces in protest of gay marriages, they send their kids off to be tortured via methods that would seen them convicted as war criminals if those children were POW's, in fact, one Christian producer went to make a film about the alleged good works in one of these camps and left questioning her faith due to the abuses and cruelty she witnessed at one such camp, and so much more.
And right now, they are going on an all-out assault to oppress and roll back all rights LGBTQ's have made in the last 20 yrs. Marriage, employment, adoption, medical care, etc. They are conducting book burning and making laws so Christians can sue anyone who even mention gays to their kids. They. HATE. GAYS!
Let's be absolutely clear here. It's not about sin. They could care less about sin and even admit this. It's just their unbounded hatred of gays that's driving this.
Your story reminds me of a woman who called Seth during an episode of his podcast: The Thinking Atheist. She talked about how she was abused as a little girl and that she'd pray for Jesus so show up and do ... something. You could hear the hurt,desperation, and anger in her voice as she talked about it. How she'd pray, pray, and pray and he just never answered. It was truly heartbreaking and Seth was a little stunned IIRC. He told her that he was unequipped to help but implored her to seek counseling. I wish I could recall the episode but it was many yrs ago.
I've heard other like-type stories. Matt on Atheist Experience had a woman call in who had lost her faith. The problem was that she felt entirely and utterly alone where she lived. She had no-one who could relate as her family and =local townspeople were all Christians. There was an upcoming atheist event not too far of a drive from her area. A few hrs I think. After Matt asked her if she could get there, he offered to pay her admission and you could hear the relief in her voice.
While religion "can" do good, the harmful impacts far outweigh it. For every food-drive or benefit diner a church held, there's likely hundreds, if not thousands of people who've been shunned, raped and made to apologize for it, tortured, and even killed just because of the toxic philosophy most religions preach. Everything from voting for Trump which has led to over a half million Americans and counting dead to young teens like Alex who was tortured by Christians (Mormons) for being gay. Or like Elizabeth Smart who was kidnapped as a young teen and raped. She never tried to escape because she was taught the toxic philosophy of abstinence only sex-ed, which ties a woman's entire worth to their intact hymen, and believed no man would ever marry her and that her family would reject her because she was now "impure".
I'm truly sorry that all this has happened to you. Your right. In the US, this shouldn't be happening but the unfortunate reality is that it does and religion plays a big role in that. Please understand that there's people who can help you. Even here. We can listen while you blow off some steam. It's OK to be angry at something that spreads so much misery.
I am hoping for the best for you. You're not alone in this.
The only really good fundie books I have read were nonfiction -- Saving Alex, and Educated by Tara Westover. Both are very Mormon fundie and horrific in places.
Content warning for homophobia, corporal punishment, spiritual/emotional abuse, maybe some thoughts of suicide in Saving.Alex.
Content warning for graphic description of injuries, spiritual/emotional abuse, sexism, tinges of Holocaust denial in Educated. May be more troubling scenes I have forgotten in each, though.
> predominantly christian countries have the best records on human rights
Pretty fucking bold claim there. I'm sure there's thousands of children who've been ripped from their parents by our overtly Christian theocratic government who would disagree. Same for the thousands of minorities jailed in this country. I'd also include many LGBTQ's who've been assaulted by Christians as well as all the kids sent off to Christian gulags to be tortured until they proclaim they're straight and love Jebus. Not to mention all the child abuse that goes on in Christian house holds like this loving Christian, who happens to be a family court judge, beating his mentally handicapped daughter proclaiming he'll BEAT her into submission. Or this poor girl who endured beatings, starvation, and stress positions because she was gay.
As for your claim that we "won't attack" Islam, here's Dress Up Muhammad. Here's a guy who dressed up as Zombie Muhammad and was attacked in Pa. Note, can't find the actual vid so this will have to do.
More to the point though is that when it comes to criticizing Islam here in the US, we need to be careful. Not because of it's followers though but rather the right-wing Christian militants we have here who made it a mission to demonize Muslims. I suspect most atheists here don't want to be associated w/ them as they see it as a holy war while we see it as criticizing religion. Muslims here suffer a lot of hate and people, pastors even, have been convicted of planning mass murder against them. I would say it's fair to claim that most atheists here in the US only have issue's w/ the religion, not the people themselves. Muslims I know are no different than most Christians I know. They just want to live their lives, raise their kids, and be successful as anyone else. It's the extremists that are the problem as we see here in the US w/ Christians and in the Mid East w/ Islam.