God as dictator was the basic image that finally allowed me to see through the oxymoron that is the Abrahamic notion of an almighty, omniscient, loving creator who takes a personal interest in our lives. Even putting aside scientific questions for a moment, the above notion of God would be incompatible with a vengeful, raging God. And how is God "all-powerful" if he gave us free will? It can't be both ways. Remember the Old Testament story where "God hardened Pharoah's heart"? So Pharoah didn't get to have free will? hmm.... Anyway, I think possibly the biggest thing keeping a lot of Christians (I have to let Islam apostates speak to their own experience) from listening to their doubt and abandoning this ridiculous paradigm is the fear of cosmic punishment if they happen to get it wrong. Once I realized the claim of God being love was impossible to square with a notion of being eternally punished for honest doubt, I was free to drop the last vestiges of Christian identity. Yay!

I am also seeing tRUMP exhibit god-like behavior who is trying to control Americans with the fear of the police and his anti-immigrant remake of the justice department. He rewards his followers by his executive orders and his resemblance of a dictator towards black and brown-skinned people.

your right

I find it interesting that the idea of love and compassion of so many religions is often wrapped up in threats and hate for 'the other' ...

If we're talking about the God of Abrahamic religions, I agree. I'm guessing some concepts of God would be less dictatorial and the slave allusion wouldn't necessarily apply. It doesn't mean there's any validity to the claim, regardless, just that there might be less of a case in some faiths for control via fear.