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> some religions think it's sinful to eat pork or seafood or beef...it's sinful to have premarital sex or to gamble or even to drink. My parents believed liter
by haswell 4y ago
> some religions think it's sinful to eat pork or seafood or beef...it's sinful to have premarital sex or to gamble or even to drink.
My parents believed literally every one of these things, and more. They believed not just that sex is sinful, but any form of physical touch, kissing, etc is sinful.
But compared to the subject of sexual orientation, those things were just annoyances in the bigger scheme of things (this is not to imply they were not harmful).
But when religious beliefs are literally about one's innate/unchangeable traits/identity, that leaves even deeper scars.
It left me with C-PTSD and I've spent my entire adult life trying to build a foundation for myself that my parents never did. It's grueling work and has required years of therapy, but I'm managing.
> Should every child's upbringing adhere to your moral worldview?
No, of course not.
But let's try something else on for size. A non-religious parent yells/screams/beats their kids. They neglect their kid's education, and they create an environment in which the child is unsure what is safe, what is real, what is true. They prevent their kid from learning about core subjects in school that might threaten the parent's power over them, and isolate them from other families who might give them a hint that a life without beatings is even possible.
We call parents like these abusers. The kids of these parents are emotionally scarred, and have an uphill battle ahead of them in life.
Yet somehow, when the parent does all of these things in the name of religion, some people stop believing it's abuse, and it's just their "worldview".
Abuse is abuse. Shitty parenting is shitty parenting. Religion doesn't change that.