"So you want religion do you?"

Organized religion is a fascinating creature. At my time in life now I can understand why so many people hate it, hate God and everything to do with it.
I don't hate God. I stand in awe of him and his plan for his children.

The church I belong to, and very distantly I might add, has the authority to administer the ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But, and this is my point, I've come to understand that just because people claim to belong to the Lord's church doesn't mean their actions and intentions are as pure as they would verbally belt you about the head that, 'the church is true'. Define 'true' for me gang.

The missionaries are some of the few that appear to live the gospel. They are out teaching and testifying of Christ and his existence and the reason he came to the earth.
But it has been my regrettable experience that if you are not marching lock-step, mentally and administratively with the hierarchy and general membership. God help you if you suffer any problems, because the attitude is, 'Well, obviously you must not be keeping the commandments. So you just have to do better'.

The likes of Australia and the US and the UK are quite suited for this kind of religion. It has  a theme of Calvinism that makes the man Calvin look quite tame by comparison. When people accuse Mormons of being un-Christian, it's been my sad experience, that I can only agree. But they're really no different to any other members of churches that become caught up in the day to day 'work'; mind you I've got a lot to say about all the pretenders to the Lord's name, also. The Gospel and its ordinances, it appears, get lost in the labyrinth of policies, practices, procedures and protocols. People and principles are very secondary.

In closing, it has been my regret that I've had to endure some of the absolute worst treatment from some of the people who are members of the church; My ex-wife, a bishop and a branch president (not being the least among those pretenders) who dished out to me some of the worst kind of sociopathic behaviour you could put you mind to. But they'd just laugh at me and simply say, 'Well, what else could you expect from a dysfunctional misfit like him'.
We've all got our demons, but when people use mental and verbal abuse; that is just sick. At one stage of the game I was told I would never be asked to participate at church because I never wore a tie. No worries.
The actions of religionists (and of course all the rest of the various chancers) down through the ages has never been much different. Get into power and use it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who could claim being bullied near to death by people who love to use either religious or personal power to make themselves look or feel good.