Welcome to the Venting Machine, David! We're pleased to have you in our community where we all need and deserve a good shout.

Your piece is speaking to many - you'll see. Thanks for sharing!

Now my personal comment on your story -

That's why I'm raising my son agnostic even though officially he's baptised as a Christian, same as us. I'll keep low on the religion part but will help him understand spirituality and deep level connection with a loving force that is everywhere around us and we can call it however we please it.

But religion can really fuck us up. I have a couple of stories myself, so I'm not speaking from books.