text: " I had a checkered youth; mandatory Bible study for years in several denominations."
  
  "Mandatory Bible study" is unfortunate, as coercion often turns off the very minds they are trying to reach.  I know, Motley, as  I lost many  of my own religious beliefs attending a professed Christian university with required Chapel and Bible classes, more rules than love and more sanctimoniousness than sacredness.  It took years to recover my equilibrium.