I want to share a very personal story, and why I have such disdain for religion and those that like to shove their religious beliefs down people's throats. It started when my dad sponsored my mom and me to America when I was 12. My dad was in a relationship with another woman at the time, so he rented a house owned by his dad for my mom and me to live apart from him. His dad generously offered to charge us half the rental rate for the house (my mom would eventually pay him back the full rate).
When we moved into the house, my mom put up an altar with pictures of her deceased parents and their parents. Like a lot of Vietnamese, my mom is non-religious but does pray to the spirits of her ancestors. Several weeks later my granddad came over to check up on us and saw the altar in the central location of the house. He was livid and started yelling at my mom in French (my dad's family is from Louisiana and my mom speaks fluent French) as he ripped down the altar. The next day he came back and put up a cross and a picture of Jesus in place of the altar. He told her that if we were to live in his house, there'll be no altar of her ancestors and she can pray to Jesus instead. He also demanded that I be baptized and go work on his farm in the summer. My mom was angry and hurt, but she acceded to his demands for my sake (she wanted me to spend the summer months there to get to know my dad and my older brothers).
Anyway, the next year my mom's friend helped us move to another house. I still had to go to Arfuckingsauce every summer to live with my dad. I actually liked working on his farm but absolutely hated attending church and Sunday school. Some of the most racist fucks I had ever encountered were in the church. All of these good Christians (including some in my dad's family) hated a strange kid that doesn't look like them and hated him enough to try and beat him up. Got in a few fights every summer with several of the boys and even the men wanted to fight me. Although I was more than capable of fighting any dude one on one, it was my brothers that came to my rescue a handful of times when I was outnumbered. But all the fights and the hatred they had for me aside, it was my granddad ripping down the altar that I'll never forget. My mom was hurt, and I had never forgiven both my dad and his dad for it.
If the fundamentalist Christians continue to have their ways, I wouldn't be surprised to see America under Christian theocracy in my lifetime. People like
@ABM would rejoice as they will have advanced their kingdom for all of the insufferable religious extremists. People like my mom will have no choice but to take down her altar and look for a new home again. I won't let anyone rip down her altar this time without a fight.