As someone who has had to deal with religious trauma… Yes.
Granted I was raised on Bible belt evangelical Christianity.
I’d say it would have been better if religion was introduced like “well some people believe this, others believe that. I believe in this, but no one knows for sure”.
Instead of “he’s watching you, and you and your mommy and daddy will all go to hell if you ever do anything bad, and you’ll lose all of your friends because you did bad things, and don’t ever forget that you did a bad thing”. More or less
When I asked about religion, my parents just said I can explore it if I want.
Both my parents went to Catholic schools, but one was decidedly not religious, and the other believed in a higher power, but not the biblical God that is particularly interested in human existence.
I went with my best friend to some church teenage kids event (games, etc), and got super weirded out by the mini sermon + heads down prayer thing before festivities. Told my parents that afterwards, and they were like “yep. Pretty creepy, huh? That’s why we don’t do church”
As someone who has had to deal with religious trauma… Yes.
Granted I was raised on Bible belt evangelical Christianity.
I’d say it would have been better if religion was introduced like “well some people believe this, others believe that. I believe in this, but no one knows for sure”.
Instead of “he’s watching you, and you and your mommy and daddy will all go to hell if you ever do anything bad, and you’ll lose all of your friends because you did bad things, and don’t ever forget that you did a bad thing”. More or less
When I asked about religion, my parents just said I can explore it if I want.
Both my parents went to Catholic schools, but one was decidedly not religious, and the other believed in a higher power, but not the biblical God that is particularly interested in human existence.
I went with my best friend to some church teenage kids event (games, etc), and got super weirded out by the mini sermon + heads down prayer thing before festivities. Told my parents that afterwards, and they were like “yep. Pretty creepy, huh? That’s why we don’t do church”