“With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

-Steven Weinberg”

I will first make a prediction as in I bet your old buddy TD will come on asking you “ where was god put on trial for his crimes? “ 

Societies traditionally have tolerated all religious practices because the religious held power in the majority of societies and one hadn’t really a choice to opt out as the implications of such would be damaging for an individual and his /her family.

In a fair proportion of societies worldwide adults will still resist stating they no longer believe because of the implications of such an action on them and their families.

I think all religions rely on indoctrination of the very young for their success in garnering new followers this is child abuse plain and simple , religion poisons the minds and hearts of the very young .....Read below Wiki .......

...... One specific meaning of the term religious abuse refers to psychological manipulation and harm inflicted on a person by using the teachings of their religion. This is perpetrated by members of the same or similar faith, and includes the use of a position of authority within the religion.[2] It is most often directed at children and emotionally vulnerable adults, and motivations behind such abuse vary, but can be either well-intentioned or malicious.[3]

Even well-intentioned religious abuse can have long-term psychological consequences, such as the victim developing phobias or long-term depression. They may have a sense of shame that persists even after they leave the religion. A person can also be manipulated into avoiding a beneficial action (such as a medical treatment) or to engage in a harmful behavior.[3] Wiki 

The game believers play to negate the damage religious belief does is to say 

when  Shiite and Sunni Muslims slaughter each other, it's not religious violence; it's "sectarian" violence. When a Christian murders an abortion doctor or a Muslim blows up a building, it's not religious terrorism; it's just terrorism. When believers block the progress of medical science at the expense of suffering people, it's not a problem generated by religion; it's "bioethics

When religious people do things that god permits according to the sacred books media and those of their religion suddenly call them fanatics for doing as god wills , most unusual behavior indeed.

The Bible has a list of rules regarding slavery as in how to purchase , treat and indeed beat them this was ( in fairness) a given and used and accepted by the religious to enslave and mistreat fellow humans , look now at how this is totally denied and the claim now is “ oh they were evil and not messengers of god as they misinterpreted the good book ? The very same dance was played with homosexuality which the Bible forbids yet now accepts its absurd.

I  made the argument before as in if a Muslim totally believes in the words of the Quran and slays infidels at least he / she is being consistent  with their sacred book the same way slavers were with the words of the Bible

Your piece brings home the reality of how the young are constantly abused by those who should know better but don’t because they to are ignorant and indoctrinated and the whole process thus continues.

My family are mainly religious and it rarely comes up as they carry out their religious practices in their own time and own places , I’m absolutely fine with this and in fairness the power the church once had in my country has being reduced to insignificance as people evolved with a growing modern society that rejected being told how to think , act and behave this seems to be the case throughout Europe as education and interaction with other societies saw religions become less hard line and this was of course something churches had to do or perish as societies evolve every part of that society either moves along or is doomed to fail

Slavery was once accepted in societies as was the jailing of homosexuals religions made moral cases for both worldwide and such was accepted , this demonstrates clearly that everything evolves which includes our moral codes and behaviors.

Societies that embrace Islam are evolving but at a slower rate but evolving they are , certain practices that were once tolerated by all are not so now but progress is slower it seem.

The U S is peculiar a fair proportion of its population appear to be hardline believers , I noted the amount of people at a Trump rally all wearing T shirts stating ....PRO GOD , PRO LIFE and PRO GOD I don’t think one is going to have a reasoned conversation about anything which individuals like this and I feel sorry for anyone who’s not religious having to live in a community where religious nuts like this live 

I think I would prefer to live in Saudi Arabia than the Bible Belt in the U S where religious lunacy seems to be the norm and at least in Saudi I wouldn’t understand the language. An American politician ( retired ) said online recently “ to state one does not believe in a god in the U S is political suicide” to do so in the Bible Belt is social and employment suicide I would think