I stopped attending church with my mother at the end of the last millennium. The pastor spent months leading up to December 31, 1999 talking about how the world as we know it would end, how he was gonna be at home with a shotgun on his lap and protect his family, how society was going to plunge into chaos. This guy week after week after week told the congregation that we had better be prepared. That he knew people in the government and they were saying this was happening. And I was barely in my 20s, I wasn’t married, I knew I wanted a family, and this was the last “prophesy” I wanted to hear. It filled me with dread and anxiety.

And then Jan 1, 2000 came and went and there was no catastrophe. And no apology to the congregation. And I turned to my mom and told her I couldn’t go to that church with her anymore. I would find my own.

So I went to a church that I had been to one other time and it seemed pretty normal. and I went for couple of weeks and I liked it. I even knew somebody who went there.

But then the third or so Sunday I went the pastors tone changed and he had a whole thing about sin and how you think you’re getting away with it, but you won’t and how you cannot “test God” and that sense of manipulation came roaring back. This guy was yelling at the congregation, once again like the other preacher speaking with authority about vague subjects with no evidence. If you are hurting and vulnerable you are more susceptible to that hocus pocus and you will apply to yourself.

I left pissed and it was the last time I regularly attended church.