Dallas Bragg describes how his family and church manipulated him from childhood into his thirties, creating guilt and shame so severe he considered suicide. Religious teachings told him suicide meant hell, trapping him between earthly suffering and damnation. He chose to leave the church entirely.
I've been angry that my family and the church manipulated my young mind in a way that stole my childhood from me. Mm-hmm. Stole my life in my 20s and early 30s to the point where the guilt and the shame drove me to plan a suicide. But then I didn't carry it out because I was told Jesus would send me to hell if I committed suicide. So finally, I got to the point where I can live in a hell here on earth, or I can live in hell after I die, but I can't do both. So I'm going to come out.
