So, do the models present designer clothes, or designer crosses?

I have no idea. Back in Adelaide they had these in 1999 which was the year I decided that the AOG and religion were not compatible with me, at least not their materialistic kind of religion. They worship the self and money way too much.

The youth pastor's wife was hosting these fashion parades..  She was kind of a hottie too. 

We even had our own christian taliban who told women off for wearing short dresses and forbid adult women to dress a certain way. Skirts had to be at the knee or longer..

You would be totally correct.

A lot of sermons dwelled on money, and marital needs like finding a partner and sex...

I would say all of the above...

10 years I was there. How the fucking hell did I manage that, I have no idea. But it was in the last 2 to 3 years that I got restless and thought of leaving..

The only fun thing was that most of the women there were total hornbags. You would not believe some of the shit that went on outside the church or during the week..

Oh and you know those passages in Matthew and John about how to treat the poor, well the attitude from the pulpit was "well screw you jack we're OK" and the poor have themselves to blame for being poor.

I have no idea in the time since if this attitude, and others have changed much. I really do not want to go back to find out..

Once I had left I became an outcast anyway and people treated me as such. Even face to face, or acted as if they didn't know me.

Yeah, and also that the rich should give everything to the poor. And that it's harder to have sex with a camel than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven (or something like that - I'm paraphrasing here).

Basically, American Christianity was hijacked by conservative fundamentalists back in the 60's and perverted nearly everything Jesus stood for. For a guy who said the meek, generous and merciful would be the most blessed, his followers seems to be incredibly judgmental, materialistic and unforgiving.


But that's getting a little off topic, isn't it? Fashion shows!

Touché.

I like religion. I really do. I feel like it has the great potential to turn people into the best versions of themselves, to give up their own selfish pettiness and both strive for perfection as well as accept things they may not seem perfect, both in themselves and the world/people around them.

But all too often, it brings out the worst in people - not just because they act wrong, but because they are convinced they are acting right.

Eh. I'm not so sure it is tied to supernatural belief.

People can overcome great obstacles when they feel something larger than themselves is guiding them. They can sacrifice their time and effort for the betterment of others if they believe they will be rewarded (or at least acknowledged) by a higher power for those actions. People can change their lives from destructive habits if they believe their soul has been born anew. And so on.

The problem I think is people in groups. People like to feel that they belong, that they are accepted and included. This is true from gangs to churches to dodgeball games on the playground. To stay included, people do things to prove their loyalty. This is most easily accomplished when there are "others" who are not part of the group, who are a threat, who work against the group, who are "the bad guys."

For gangs, this can be rival gangs or the police. For religious types, it includes anyone who believes differently than their religion. Instead of being accepting of people who may not agree with you, these people are sinners who will rot in hell for daring to oppose the divine will of whoever or whatever you believe in. While hell and sin are certainly supernatural concepts, how many religious people regard secular or "outsider" folks is the same as you'd see from a gang banger who is wearing the "wrong" colors.

Gays? Their lifestyle is an affront to my morals. People who say science indicates evolution over a direct interpretation of the opening pages of my sacred text? These people are trying to lead the world astray with lies and falsehoods. People who believe in a different religion? God wants them in Hell, so clearly we are okay to hasten their trip there if they don't want to see the light of our divine truth.

Anyone who contradicts any of the by-laws of the faith can be marginalized to inconsequential beings who God hates at best, direct threats to everything holy that must be dealt with harshly at worst. Regardless, when dealing with an enemy of the group, you are nearly always given full permission to ignore any of the advice your religion tells you about dealing with others. Since, after all, God hates these evil-doers.

Again, this deals with supernatural elements (hell, sin, God, etc.), but they could just as easily be replaced with philosophy, politics, science or console platforms. Wars have been fought over these things just as much as religious conflicts... although I would say religion tends to hold the body count (but console wars are catching up).

If we can quit focusing on fighting each other and instead on becoming better people (with religion or with anything), then we'll see the negative culture surrounding human society go away. Sadly, I'm not sure if we have what it takes to put our biologically-wires tribal warfare mindsets aside.

Have I mentioned I hate the quoting system for this forum? It's quite tedious to highlight the important bits. Anyways...

Cults generally try to avoid losing followers by highly stigmatizing people that leave. In essence using the fear of being ridiculed to keep people from even considering leaving in the first place. Other more prominent cults will even threaten the lives of, kidnap, or even kill people that decide to leave, yet again using fear to keep people in. Thankfully, most cults lack the finances to be truly diabolical in their methods, but there are exceptions... 

I seem to recall from a prior discussion with one of my fundamentalist friends that there is a passage in the Old Testament (Leviticus?) dealing with how horrible gays were, but I don't recall Jesus (who Christians should actually be listening to) ever mentioned them.