text: Elaine, in a sense you are correct. Religion is a human creation intrinsically sown with toxicity - sort of like family and all other human institutions. But what viable alternatives do you see? 
  
  I have heard of people who felt great joy at giving up jewelry and wedding rings in order to join a community of faith that they believed to be God's church. You were able to walk away from the church when it became too toxic for you. What you consider an effort to erase conscience, others would call educating the conscience. 
  
  The church - unlike government - is a voluntary institution. When I joined, I gave up part of my identity - part of my autonomy. Why should I cry foul if the Church doesn't want to "grow" and "mature" as I have? What you call dictates of the GC, others call leadership. What Alicia calls control, others call voluntary submission to, and respect for, the boundaries of the community of faith as a condition of belonging. Why is freely chosen surrender toxic?