csb: I attended what was called 'religious education,' which we called religious ed, for a few weeks in elementary school, which turned me off from organized religion to this day. Backstory: my father grew up in a very religious household. His mother went to church (Eastern Orthodox) at least twice a week, and expected the whole family to go on Sundays if not more often. My father, being a dutiful son, went along with that for quite a while. One Sunday, though, in his 17th year, he decided he didn't want to go to church anymore. So he didn't. He never talked much about his religious beliefs or lack thereof, but I'm pretty sure he's an atheist. So I was not raised in a religious household, and was surprised when my mother signed me up for this religious ed stuff; I guess she thought it would be good for me or something. I was probably going through one of my pretty much continual rebellious phases, so maybe that had something to do with it too.
Anyhoo, it was a way to get out of class for a couple hours on Wednesday afternoons, so I didn't fight it too hard. It was held in some church a couple of miles from the school, and the other religious ed folks and I took a bus. The church was old and smelled musty, and the pews were hard and uncomfortable. The speakers or teachers or whatever they were supposed to be were uninspiring. The first day I went they passed out copies of the Book of John, along with some instructions. Instructions were as follows:
1. Read the Book of John.
2. Read the Book of John 50 times.
3. Memorize the Book of John.
No, I'm not making that up. There was more, but I knew damn well I wasn't going to follow those instructions, so I don't remember what the rest of them were. I could recognize attempted indoctrination when I saw it, even at that age. I read the little book once, got the gist of it, and didn't bother with the rest. Stopped going to religious ed soon after that; it wasn't worth it. I could sit in class and draw pictures or whatever, and not have to put up with what I saw as prime, grade A bullshit.