Think of your stereotypical Church Lady (SATAN!!!!, not Santa): was she not forced into an artificial box early on? Has she not spent her life denying any number of emotions, well in excess of the merely sexual? Does this not make people angry and frustrated, even if they cannot express these emotions CONSCIOUSLY? Of course, and of course all this gets out, one way or another. Think Westboro Baptist Church, which I will not even attempt to defend.
Think of Islam. I cannot imagine a cultural order better suited to the suppression of individuality (other than Communism, with which it seemingly has much in common). Everybody–all the men, I should say, who at that still have more chance at self expression than the women locked up in their homes–has to do the same thing (prayer), the same way, at the same times, every day. And if they don’t, they are condemned.
Heaven and Hell are absolute, irrevocable, eternal, and both contingent on conformity to the dominant cultural forms.
Is it any wonder so many are so eager to kill themselves? Obviously, it is in their faith (actually, suicide in the pursuit of mass murder is not, but how can I quibble with the clergy who extol then excuse it?), but it seems to go deeper, to an actual social NEED, to something people want.
Now I have no issues with Christianity or Islam per se. If I had to pick a “faith” it might well be Sufism. But to extend this example, the Sufis have been and are persecuted for apostasy or heresy. Many have been killed in Iran, at a minimum, in recent years, and that despite the brilliant Persian poetry of men like Hafez, Rumi, and Omar Khayyam.
There are countless ways to break people, and all of them are easier when they are young. That so many continue to be practiced in the modern world shows how far culture has yet to progress.