religion control and power

Religion seems to be very much like control using fear and has left me feeling trapped in the case of repressing my anger with my next door neighbour and with my sexuality. My mentor is interested and not surprised that I want to leave the church just like I have left home and boarding school. Church and religion are about control and keeping the status quo and rules and regulations. It is not about understanding. There are too many corrupt people in church who go along with everything they are taught without question or fail. This is sad. Why I found just as much persecution in the church after different types of people as I have found in Fascists, Racists, National Front etc. The same kind of ignorance and lack of understanding. How can they stand and say they are Christians. It's like religion is a drug and people are getting so hooked on it that is not just taking over their lives and their minds but also making them into fanatics where they are unable to see any other persons point of view.

I have no problem with people having their own point of view but when it is so narrow minded and ignorant and it infringes on other peoples views by fear, force and control then whose to say they are not as bad as Hitler. That's how it started with him. A whole group of people following a fanatic who could be a priest, an MP, a vicar etc.

There is a place for ritual but the ritual is a way of remembering and it is part of an emotional journey and it brings people together. It is symbolic. If it is not there for any reason then it has to be changed. It is great we remember who fought in World war 2 but that doesn't help the young to understand the reality of war and it consequences. That can be taught in schools through drama, through film, through history etc.

It seems like everything is falling apart and power and greed corrupts most of us to the point we have lost the truth and what life is all about. Where we feel the need to lie. Seeing what a greedy and corrupt person Mother Teressa had become frightened me. To see and hear what she was teaching was the height of pure ignorance. To teach that contraception is bad as war is quite frightening. She didn't care where she got the money from to help her campaign against contraception and building the church for the pope and for what reason. So she could impress the pope and canonized. Did the money go to the poor she used to help? No.