Here is a real-life story about organised "religion" and how it can affect people's lives that you might find interesting.
When I was working at Chandigarh about 8-10 years ago, I came to know a young American white woman. She was brought into the company as an intern, but the owner/CEO soon made her the head of content marketing. Before I was fired within about 8 months of joining because the owner thought I was not a good writer, she had been made the Chief Marketing Officer. After a few years, she and I connected on social media, and I learnt that she had also left the company shortly after I left and returned to America. Apparently, she could not find the kind of job she was looking for there and freelanced for many years. Although she did not tell me as much, I gathered that she did not do well in her freelance work during the Covid period and then took up a job at a company, which she has kept since then.
Anyway, the above was about her professional life. Now, I would like to tell you something about her personal life. When I met her in Chandigarh, she was a happy-go-lucky person who loved adventure sports like trekking and paragliding. She also liked to travel and travelled extensively over India when she was here.
I do not know what exactly happened after she returned to the US, but she turned to religion massively over the past few years and became a born-again Christian. Many of her social media posts were about how she had been "saved" and how Jesus was not just the son of God but God personified, etc. She also posted videos about passages from the Bible that she had read and her interpretation of those passages. She did not go completely crazy, though, and remained the ardent animal lover she always had been (She still has a dog, whom she loves dearly.). She also retained some fundamental liberal views from before, such as how it is essential to ensure free speech for everyone. She also remained affectionate towards friends and said she and her church group would pray for me when I developed a brain issue last December. She continued to ask about my well-being periodically after that and to pray for me until I got well.
However, during a discussion sometime last year, she told me that she was committed to marrying a Christian man only after she had been "saved" since it was important for a husband and wife to be "equally yoked". Later, I found out through her social media posts that she had gotten engaged, apparently to a "Christian" man. Yesterday, she told me that she broke off the engagement in February because she found out just before she began to "book different wedding things" that the "Christian" man had been "deceptive" towards her for several months. I am sure that the blindfold of "religion" remains firmly in place over her eyes, though, and she will be looking for another "Christian" man!
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