I was just curious if anyone else here was subjected to fear-inducing tactics as a child within their religion? Besides the depicting of Hell as a guillotine threatening to drop anytime you misbehave I mean. Personally, I was subjected to something that terrified me well into my adulthood. My church would have these plays called Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames. They would have people on stage acting out scenarios. A father would be driving with his two daughters and they would ask him why he doesn't come to church anymore. There would be jokes about stopping at McDonald's and such. Suddenly one of them would scream, "Watch out!" and the speakers would blast this deafening screeching and crashing sound and the room would go dark. The lights would come on and they would be at the foot of some stairs (my church was big enough that the production value was actually pretty good). They would ask an angel if their name was in the book. The angel would check and either they would be welcomed up the stairs into heaven to joyous music... or the angel would cover its eyes and the lights would turn red. "Satan" and his minions would come from a red pit off stage and grab the father or friend or mother, to the cries of family members, and drag them away. This was also accompanied by deafening laughter and loud noise.

I was younger than 10 and I remember burying my face in the pew and covering my ears. I remember praying desperately, though I had no idea what exactly I was supposed to pray for or why I was praying at all. This kind of child abuse should be illegal. These plays combined with the movies Ghost and All Dogs Go to Heaven were enough to keep me too frightened to question Christianity until I was 17. Luckily, religion is so logically flawed that even fear isn't enough to permanently secure belief.