My parents were both Democrats, my Mother made me go to church until I was confirmed into the Lutheran church at which time the decision to attend was up to me. I had older parents and I think they were tired of raising kids by the time I came along.

My old man was the right wing nut, my mother the religious nut.

I didn't attend church much with my parents because they didn't attend much. Later when I was in college my dad wondered why I was a skeptic.

My upbringing was strict and heavily religious, but not as bad as some. I was reared in the Catholic tradition, and my mother was incredibly conservative, so I got the full dose of Hell taught to me, and all of the rituals and dogma and formal/rigid theology. But, fortunately, there was never a requirement to disbelieve science, so that's a mark for the "pro" side of my upbringing.

That was my entire life up until six months ago.

I feel your pain. They didn't handle snakes, I think that's pretty rare nowadays, but everything else went.

I was raised in a cult.

I was a Catholic.

Yup. My dad was a whack job. Tried to align himself with the Trinity with crap like "The son shall honor the Father". I'd tell him that he was missing the point. The assumption was that the father was honorable and so should be the son. I'd call him a snot slinging fall down drunken drug addict and he wasn't honorable and I wasn't bending a knee to him. He died last June. No, I don't mourn him. I might mourn what should have been...but not him.

Oh, man. To me, that qualifies as abuse.

No, and very likely because, as a poor young girl in the midwest, my mother’s cheap entertainment was watching the Pentecostals inside their church from a hidden vantage point… She still describes their ‘insane behavior’ with astonishment!

I've been to those churches but that was during my own search for the truth. Didn't stay there long though.

I remember experiencing those church activities as a child. Not because of my parents, but my brother and I just enjoy going to various denominational churches to "check 'um out" I also recall some fantastic chicken dinners after church on the church grounds, prepared right there on the spot by the members.

Not me. I had authoritarian hypocrites, with anger issues, who claimed to be catholics.
Although, the "strict, right-wing conservative" thing was part of it.
Not quite the same as yours, but just as disturbing.

Wow. It still amazes me how prevalent this stuff is in a developed country like the U.S.

Oh no....

Yes, on everything except the snake handling. Luckily that was just every other weekend with my mom. My dad went to a very boring church where you'd be asked to leave if you dared clap your hands during a song. Needless to say, the stark differences were quite confusing for me at times.