Oh my! "Walter," I'd say, in the vernacular, you nailed it! :)

A series of life lessons led me to finally take the step out the door of "the church." 

But just yesterday day, a friend asked if I felt any resentment toward the church of my youth and my cloistered upbringing. I replied with an emphatic "No!"

I quoted a life coach I employed for a number of years. (For the record, his reply was much saltier than my paraphrase quoted here.) This fine gentleman and I had worked on a number of issues in my life, including a nearly debilitating need for approval AND a pathological need to be right. 

As I whined one more time about my "upbringing" (which mirrored yours in many ways) he said, "Oh for blankety-blanks sake, shut the blank up! All that stuff (not the word he used) good and bad is what made you the man you are today!"

He did not use the paraphrased expletives lightly so he got my attention! And he was completely right!  

Thanks for great article!