Religion

That Christianity can be taken to that kind of extreme place casts a shadow on the whole thing, I believe. And denominations we consider to be more or less mainstream sometimes have extreme things in their histories. Martin Luther's vile antisemitism and the RCC's support for the Inquisition and murderous "Crusades" come to mind. And then, there were the Salem witch trials and the witch burnings in Europe. Add to those things the genocidal activities of Christianity against indigenous peoples all over this planet, and the toxic brew isn't all that tempered by later dilutions of reason.

In sum, I believe religion is a negative influence on society, generally. Here and there we can find churches doing good works and being supporting of social goods, but then we turn around and find a story like the one I just told. The church belonged to by the people in that story was a pentecostalist denomination that seems to me to have lost its humanity altogether. Their connection to the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount no longer exists. They have abandoned all that is decent in the Gospels and replaced it with all that is intolerant and evil.

Sexual abuse of children that gets covered up and ignored. That happens in all denominations, frankly. It's an endemic evil caused by false trust in leadership of churches. There is no denomination that does not have an abusive history, somewhere along the line.

A pox on it all, I say.