Thank you for a great article about an important issue. It is indeed child abuse and spiritual abuse. Hmm, there was a Catholic or former Catholic minister, what was his name? Ah, Father Leo Booth, that's it, who did some wonderful work and wrote a fantastic book about this some years ago, the 90's. Do check him and the book out. That was about the first time I had heard someone else take very seriously the kind of abuse you descibe that i also grew up in and continue (in my forties now) to recover from. It IS heartbreaking:  to instill SUCH fear! Remember "A Distant Thunder" and that triology of terror movies that they showed in my childhood church? I do. Still can't forget it. True enough, we would have NEVER been allowed to watch such harrowing images on television (when it was finally allowed in the house) when i was ten or eleven, but horror in church, it seemed, was fine. It is severely heartbreaking to at best have a facsimile of a relationship with God and at worst to completely shut out (who wouldn't?!) this God, this God that is meant to be and wants to be our greatest comfort. I am grateful for you post. . . and grateful for the relentless love of God that has pursued me and continued to minister to me through the likes of Brian Zahnd, Jimmy Spencer Jr., Shane Claiborne, Andrew Marin, Rob Bell, and many others now. Blessing to you, as together we continue to turn toward the One and share in the wonder of our growing in Love. - PreetamDas