And its killing me to be forced to watch silently from a distance as my brother repeats the same cycle of abuse with his children.

As an aside, grumpyoldfart, you don’t get to decide what Dana’s friend is thinking. Sure there are cynical religious people who use their god as a shield against responsibility, but nothing in the post says this friend is one of those. Unless you’ve lived it, its hard to imagine the mindset that not only are you responsible for your own failings, you are incapable of doing anything remotely good, you are damned to hellfire for the crime of being born and credit for anything good goes directly to god instead of you. Try lying awake at night wracked with guilt and terrified of a hell you’re convinced is real, its not fun. It took years after I left the church to finally rid myself of the last shreds of that fear, and I can easily understand why some people can’t pull themselves free.

Nearly missed the bit about Him keeping us as slaves possessions

That [God’s] love isn’t vague sentimentality, but it cost him his most precious treasure to turn us into his prized possession;

God’s loving pursuit of people who run from him as fast as they can and who live lives unworthy of his love.

God sure sounds like an attention-seeking, over-needy child to me. “Play with MEMEMEME! Love MEMEMEME!”

And I just thought that is the most horrible thing I have ever heard someone say about humans. They cannot do good on their own–the only thing they can bring to the table is evil. If they do good? That was really God, not them! If they do evil? That’s all on them, not God!

My Baptist friend, is this was you want your beautiful babies to become?

Your Baptist friend is probably not interested in anyone or anything but himself. Back when he was a believer he never had to take responsibility for his actions. Whenever he made a mistake he could immediately say, “It wasn’t my fault, god has other plans for me.” Even better, his peers would accept that excuse (because they intended to use it themselves one day).

Then he left the church and things went OK until he started making mistakes and there was no god to take the blame. He had to admit to himself that he had made a bad decision (or whatever) and that, really, he was a bit of a dickhead.

So now he’s back in church and he never has to admit to any failings. No matter what he does, no matter how silly it appears, the decision is out of his hands. He is being led by god and everything will turn out for the best.

Your Baptist friend probably doesn’t believe any of the bible stories, but he will never let go of god because he needs god to absolve him of responsibility for his actions. And if the kids turn out to be ratbag fundamentalists he can tell himself: “It doesn’t matter. It’s about me, not about them. And it’s all going to turn out for the best anyway.”