I hate religion. I badly want to rant and vent my anger about a discussion on abortion I just had this evening… but I just can’t. My fingers keep hovering over the keyboard, refusing to tap down to type the next set of words in queue. I’m angry, that’s for sure, but I know that my anger is not really an effect of the conversation. Therefore ranting would be misguided if not foolish. Instead I will just say what needs to be said about the subject the needs to be talked about.

As far as I can tell my life’s work is to help advocate and spread education about sexuality. In my line of work, religion is a huge roadblock. Next to a dire lack of education, religion is the single largest issue which inhibits rational discussions about anything and especially sexuality. I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the effects of religion on healthy sexuality.

To illustrate how big of a problem it is I would like you to imagine an elephant. This elephant is neon lavender in color and spiked. Surrounding this elephant is a Nile shaming moat filled with sharks with freaking laser beams. This elephant has a reverse Midas touch, so instead of gold it turns things into shit. One of its favorite pastimes is to travel all around the world touching things.  

People come to me all the time with issues that are, at their very core, symptoms of their prescribed/subscribed religion. For example, Pregnant teens that were only taught abstinence because, “it’s God’s way”; adult women who have never touched their own vaginas because it’s “sinful”; or adult men who have never had a successful relationship because they only know relationships to be an inevitable precursor to marriage. Trying to help people in situations like those makes me feel as if I’m going toe to toe in the ring with a brick wall. The entire situation is frustrating and disheartening for all parties involved.