I'm Italian.

Four years ago the DDL Zan, a law that sought to fight language and deeds that amount to religious, political and racial discrimination by adding aggravating factors for sexual orientation, gender and gender identity, was proposed.

Among its detractors, the Vatican itself, who urged Italy to stop the law because, according to them, the Law calls into question church’s ‘freedom of organisation’ and threatens ‘freedom of thought’.

While those cartoonish evil cults aren't common, they are not the only evil religious organizations in the world. The head of one of the abrahamic religions, and one of the most popular religions in the world, fought against the freedom of my fellow LGBT+ individuals because of their supposed right of hate speech, apparently. So no, it's not an American perspective, and yes, all religions are evil.

A system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object.

All religions are cults.

That there exist congregations that aren't actively being taken advantage of, or doing evil shit, doesn't mean people living their lives believing things that aren't real and making choices based on that belief, are harmless.

You can be the kindest soul on earth, but if you believe stabbing someone in the heart helps them, you might still do it.

Believers do that type of shit all the time, like words spoken while meaning well, but doing harm. They look at reality through the distorting lens of faith, they can't ever truly see it. There is a fatal disconnect between perception and reality.

They thank God instead of their doctor, they tell their depressed children to consult Jesus when they need medication, they feel crushed by bad luck because it can't just be bad luck, everything is god's plan, meaning they feel they deserve it.

Religion adds so many tiny twists to reality, and every single one hurts someone. Both the believer and those around them. If you haven't seen it happen, you're the exception, not the rule.