Also, not all religious people are as happy as you are, many live in constant anxiety about hell, many children are disowned and many women are forced into following certain rituals and traditions. Many gay Christians live their lives feeling dirty as well as children just finding church really bloody boring, they could be out being kids (there are so many ways to injure yourself it seems silly to sit on a bench all morning).
While I can only speak from my own experience and point of view, I feel that the biggest, most successful weapon Satan employs is not stuff like drugs, sex, etc, but what my church call "legalism' and similar ideas that so many churches seem to (sadly) promote as truth
Ive heard many people say in some churches you are made to feel that you need to meet all sorts of criteria to be 'good enough' to be a real christian, or be saved, or simply join that church.
This is not God, this is the people in that church. I personally feel that many of those ideas go 100% against what God is about - the whole point to jesus dying on the cross is that we have a free gift of salvation - we dont have to feel guilty, or dirty. And we do not have to 'earn' that salvation by following rituals, or being suddenly this perfectly sinless (and probably anal and boring) person. If we were meant to do that - or even capable, there would be no need for Jesus to take all of our sins on his shoulders for us. He did that specifically so that we did not have to spend our lives feeling guilty or flogging ourselves to meet some expectation of a church etc.
I believe the very moment any person says 'I want to accept jesus as my saviour, God please forgive my sins and come into my life as my God now' (or something similar that they are saved. The changes that I have seen in myself and others do not come at all from any sort of guilt or feeling I need to do something to measure up. If anything at times I have been telling myself I am a crappy attempt at a christian etc etc - and when I ask God how to fix that or for help - the only messsage i would get popping out in my bible, things ppl said, stuff i watched on tv, music on the radio - everything would be that God loved me and that i was saved and would live with God in heaven. Id look at it and go why isnt God answering me - till finally i realised he was.
Anyway - when you realise that God is really going to love you no matter what you do, and that you dont have to earn that - then you want to do what he wants b e the person he wants - and you find that when he has a plan for you that is not what you planned or expected - that it always works out by far the best for you (in a richer fuller way than you can imagine) - then after a while you start to realise that if you trust him to run things - you will always end up making the best decisions - taking the best options, getting the best result etc.
But that comes directly from God to you - not from anyone else. And while my experience is that the moment you become a christian, God is suddenly there and real in a way he is not ever at all prior to this - I also do think if you are are geniunely wanting to know - what is the real truth of it all? And as part of that ask " the christian God' to reveal himself to you - maybe say that if he is real and is God, that you would totally follow him (i mean if you had undeniable proof you would unless totally stupid, yes?) but that at the moment you just dont feel you believe that - or that you ever can, or that specific things about the bible etc you just totally disagree with or feel are wrong - then ask him to show you if he is real - or to show you what the story is really with any preconceptions you have about him or bible events (ie to show you why they happened that way - or if you have misunderstood the meaning that God reveals to you what it does mean
To me, if you do the above - it is just something you can put to God - in your head you don't need to say a word out loud (or you can - totally up to you - I still yell at God and argue with him - I told him I was most thoroughly unimpressed with his way of doing things just 4 days ago (his way has proven correct as it always does lol - but that didnt stop me debating it then, and unfortunately probably wont in future either. In some ways I think its to be expected - I want to have a close relationship - and the closer it gets the more likely I am to disagree with him
If you want to explore the concept of other Gods as well - then tell him that - and tell him why - challenge him to prove otherwise - just say whatever you are thinking and whatever questions you want to ask, dont hold back. Hes God, not a little fragile flower, and to be God surely he can handle the tough questions so ask them/
If he is real as i claim, he knows everything you think anyway - so why not just ask him? You took the time to post here more than once, why ask God himself, rather than try and sift through the interpretations of me and others? Worst case scenario you ask and don't get a reply and you are no worse off than you are now, best case you get a reply and then you will know what is real and what is not - from your own experience rather than relying on someone elses claims...
of btw if you decide to ask him to reveal himself to you - it took about 2 years after I asked that several times, before he did to me. (of course the many many offensive four letter words i called him in that time may not have helped my case lol)
Oh on the gay christians thing - (I have gay (non chrstian as far as i am aware) friends - and while my church is not one that says it is biblically not a sin to be gay, if a gay person went to my church they would be treated the same as anyone else (actually i have no idea how anyone would know they were gay as it wouldnt ever be asked and i have not heard a single serman in over a year on that topic and dont expect to. I did ask a couple of long term members about this - My dilema being not how to treat gay people - to me thats obvious with respect and love - as anyone - but how to view their relationship - as in my observations one couple i am thinking of - they demonstrate a very real and geniune love for each other. While I can read the bible is pretty clear on same sex relationships - I also in my gut dont feel that God disapproves of the real love those 2 guys have for each other - emotionally anyway. And what I did read in a book (seriuosly funny - great comedy) was the authors opinion that even if it is a sin - so is looking lustfully at your neighbour, lying, selfishness and a whole pile of other things that we all do all the time, There is no comparison rating saying it is any worse or better to be gay than to lie or steal etc. In my own personal experience with God he would look on even a small lie - if deliberate and for deceitful, or other wrong reasons - as being way worse than the love between two men (or women) being expressed physically).
I also have to say that personally - I dont believe in that whole cure you of being gay thing - i have never known anyone involved with that at all so have no factual eveidence to feel that way - I just do
And finally
on the bored kids thing - maybe a new churches is needed if that is the case
i took my two nieces (1 and a half and 4 both pretty strong willed precocious little girls) to church with me a few weeks back - much to the amusement of my sister and brother in law who assured me i wouldnt last 5 mins, and that i would have to leave early as they would not stay in the kids program at a church they didnt know for the hour - 90 mins it was on
as it turned out I had to almost forcibly remove one niece from the kids group - she informed me when I went to get them (her sister was also happily playing and in no hurry to leave) that she 'wasnt finished yet' and even when I told her several times we needed to leave to go to macdonalds (a treat for them - their mum doesn't make a habit of mackers) she was not keen to leave.
I think all the thinks you mention are totally valid - but are a reflection of the failings of the church involved not of God. And again -for anyone in that situation I suggest you put that to God, find me a decent church. and he will. He did for me (I said find me a church - 2 days later i was
treasure hunted
if you or anyone you know is at a church doing any of the things you mention - or making them feel bad like that - then what they need to do is find a new church - not a new God
The church I go to does not do anything like that and if they started i would leave and feel 100% not guilty for leaving. I do know people who are involved in churches who possibly do behave that way - and while I think the friends are genuine and mean the best - that the values their church is preaching are totally wrong.
As I said I personally feel that its Satan most effective weapon
Any dramatic denial of God or anything else that draws attention to God - that might make people stop and wonder, or even start to look into it
However if you put out there a message that God is dreary, depressing, full of crap rules and guild trips, boring and will waste your time and put you in a bad mood - thats a very effective way of ensuring no one takes the time to check out God any further (we only google interesting things)