Here in Italy complaining about the Vatican’s interferences in the civil life of our country is part of the lifestyle, and for good reasons. There is no doubt that Italy would greatly benefit from a more secular government, yet even I have to admit that religion plays a much worse role in many other places. While we “just” worry about whether the Good Pope 2.0 («Hey! This one isn’t even a Nazi! Hooray!») will finally pay his taxes, a large portion of the world is in the hands of fundamentalists. «Muslim!» I hear somebody say – but that’s not it. I’m talking about Christians, the type virtually unknown in Europe, but steadily gaining ground worldwide.

The Church’s standard pedophiles are just as bad as a picturesque variety of characters including Irish killer fanatics, or North American child manipulators, funeral desecrators, doctor slaughterers and so on. All of these forms of extremism have a common strategy – as always in these cases – of brainwashing severely ignorant and destitute people, who after hearing the same nonsenses throughout their lives end up believing them.
Their tools are the same of any Sunday school. Terror of a higher judgment, building of an unsolvable feeling of inadequacy through the concept of ‘sin’, ignorance fueled by contradicting magical stories, derailing of the present good in favor of an imaginary joy when you are dead, and above all the tragic transformation of sexuality into a disgusting and fearsome enemy. It’s no wonder psychiatrists are so busy – and in the United States this is often exacerbated to Old Testament levels.

Enter Darrel Ray, son of a preacher and until 35 years ago a very religious and desperate person himself. One day his anthropology and sociology studies suggested him something you should already know: the more sex you have, the better you feel – and the better you feel, the less credit you give to the priests’ tall tales. And vice versa.
Understandably, his discovery excited him so much that he published a whole study about it, which you can download here. Darrel also specialized in sex education… but there the problems started.

In the Bible Belt people were scared to go near him for they feared reprisals from their communities. On their part, secular psychologists and educators didn’t express their opinions, knowing well enough the risks this entailed.
Instead of letting this demotivate him, mr. Ray fought even harder for the good of the victims of fundamentalisms. First he created an organization called Recovering from religion, holding conferences and support groups for those needing help to escape extremist cults. Then he recently added the Secular therapy project, allowing professionals and clients to get in touch with each other in anonymous fashion.

If you wish to watch one of Darrel Ray’s speeches you can do it here. This could be a good idea, as his public appearances are often accompanied by violent protests and threats from “Christian terrorists”. All because he says that sex is a good thing. I wonder what would happen if he talked about the other themes of this website…