'You're not getting this damn vaccine'

[ShazzieB]

37. That "You will burn in hell for all eternity if you [fill in the blank]!" crap is powerful stuff.

At least it is for some. I got it mostly in church, rather from my parents, but I was the kind of compliant trusting child who believed what I was told unquestioningly until I got old enough to think for myself. (Yes, we DO exist.)

By my mid-twenties, I had started to intellectually reject a lot of the things I was taught, but there was a deeply buried, existential "...but what if I'm wrong?" fear that took years longer to fully dispel.

It's gone now, but I still remember what it was like and how powerful it was.