Originally Posted by
lillamy 
I really think the sticking-to-the-rules thing is just something that makes them feel safe and in control.
I think it's the easy way to them feelings they're "doing the right thing." They just follow this checklist, and nothing else matters, because they'll be okay.
I think too it's easy when you're running from your past to go find a church to hide behind, and the stricter churches seem to fit that bill more because again, all you've got to do is follow the checklist.
...not meaning to be disrespectful to any organized religions or anything, it's just that those sorts of churches do appeal to those sorts of people, regardless of the level of devotion and/or faithfulness and/or spirituality of any of the other members in that church.
When mine was in rehab, he started talking about how he wanted to go to church every week, and I could pick whatever one I wanted, and he'd even go to a
Catholic one if I chose that since he knows I'd prefer that. (This coming from a man who always spent at least part of his drunken, abusive tirades talking about how the Pope should be shot for molesting young boys, and how the Catholic Church is the haven for molesters, thieves, and hypocrites.)
It's not the
FAITH they're after, it's the
FACADE.