I'm sorry to hear that. One of my friends experienced child abuse due to his parents' religious fervor. When he was six or seven, his parents forced him to memorize Biblical Scripture for hours. They disregarded his education because his mother "home-schooled" him. His parents threatened him that if he sinned or didn't learn Scripture thoroughly, God would cast him into Hell to burn for eternity. After being "lectured," his father would order him to strip, flogging him until "God let his father know that his boy has learned his lesson." He recalls his parents being members of a cult-like religious group that followed archaic Biblical practices and performed strange rituals.

On the other hand, my cousin had comparable experiences without physical abuse. He attended apocalyptic-obsessed churches with his parents. The preacher delivered passionate fire-and-brimstone sermons like Jonathan Edwards. Nevertheless, he considered the Bible unquestionably true and became a nomadic evangelist.

In these two instances, the first terrifingly aware; and the second was blissfully unaware