What Is Up With Religion????

I am troubled, I really can't go into much detail about the depth of my worries over two different family members and how religion has affected them in different ways. Neither of them I think are healthy.

The youngest family member was a normal 18 year-old boy until 4 months ago, then something happened. His father has been a weird fundamentalist preacher for about 3 years "preaching" hate, exclusion and other very offensive "theologies." Of course all come from the Bible, according to him. It is that selective Bible reading crap.

This young person has now picked up on some of these "teachings" but he has become obsessed with the "sins" of America. He feels that he, and he alone, must right all the wrongs in the U.S. My biggest fear is that he will find out that he cannot right all the wrongs, become more depressed than he is and harm himself. You read this child's myspace page and it is frightening. He is setting himself up for failure.

I have tried discussing this with his parent's but I am a heathen, according to them, and don't know what I am talking about. they don't care that I worked with teens for over 15 years, I have training in suicide and suicide prevention.

To the older family member who has been traumatized by religion... she is doing her second stint in a psychiatric hospital. A couple of years ago at a religious retreat she was "counseled" by someone not trained in counseling and supposedly trauma from her childhood surfaced. They had to take her from the retreat to the hospital. She has had numerous suicide attempts since then, in patient and out patient treatment. The odd thing is... this church that held the retreat and one she had been a member of for years, has not made contact or inquired about her since.

We know very little about what happened at the retreat but the person doing the counseling did tell me that since she, the family member, was homosexual, he was trying to let her know that it was a sin and that she was damned to hell if she did not change her ways. She is an abomination. Excuse f****ing me?!?!?

I have a very hard time with this selective religious teaching. What does it say about those who hate others for who or what they are? I am very pro-choice but this does not make me a bad person but those who bomb and kill in the name of pro-life are what.... living by the Bible?

The Bible cannot be taken literally, noted theologians agree on this. But it does tell us to live with compassion, love, kindness and goodness in our hearts. yet I see the opposite and I see it ruining good people, killing wonderful people.

I don't want to debate this. I don't want your preaching. I am very frustrated by what is happening to people I love and care for and common sense is not prevailing.