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There are two kinds of rejection that have very different origins, so need to be examined from two points of view.

The first was a reaction to oppressive religion. This happened in the US starting in the 1940s, when religion had entered the public sphere and forced the petty and vindictive goals of *individuals*, *in the name of religion* on those not part of their sect or clique.

In many cases this was “Protestant on Protestant”, and “Protestant on Catholic” oppression. Many small towns were “lorded over” by cliques of one sect that socially oppressed others and built up a huge reservoir of resentment.

This radically changed because of one man, the acting president of Indiana University, Herman B. Wells, who took what amounted to a rural, sectarian, corrupt, seminary school and turned it into a world class university right in the heart of the Bible Belt. And in doing so, he indirectly sponsored the Kinsey institute, to a great extent responsible for the “sexual revolution”, another revolt against the hypocritical morality of the times, as well as giving a huge impulse to the early Civil Rights movement, against the widespread segregation in the North.

Importantly, what was overthrown was decadent and corrupt, and used religion as an excuse for innumerable sins and vice, maintaining a dying but vile social order.

Truthfully, religion was much healthier returning to its faith and righteousness after this collapse of the old order. Clergy were once again clergy, and the sectarian cliques fell apart when they were seen as just nasty people without piety.

The other form of rejection is more modern, and it has no legitimate underpinnings, only hate and fanaticism. It is closer to mental illness and is truly described by its bitter, burning hatred, of not just religion and God, but also of the faithful, pious and happy.

It finds its satisfaction in liberal-leftist socialism and atheism. But it is not content with just having personal beliefs, it wants to and seeks to destroy everything that is beneficial, pleasant, balanced and joyous.

I read a bizarre example of this sickness in another forum, which had the typical “Is Obama the Antichrist?” nonsense. An Obama supporter, rhetorically backed into a corner, blurted out that he wished Obama *was* the Antichrist.

What? Because if Obama was the Antichrist, then he would give his followers what they wanted, and more importantly, attack and destroy the people his followers hated.

He would be “powerful”.

This puts a new perspective on how aberrant such people can be. This is not just rejection, as such, but mental illness.