We produce this sense of ownership not only by pride, but by confusion. We teach them not to notice the different senses of the possessive pronoun- from "my boots' ... to "my God." They can be taught to reduce all these senses to that of "my boots", the "my" of ownership.
Even in the nursery a child can be taught to mean by "my teddy bear" not the old imagined recipient of affection to whom it stands in a special relation... but "the bear I can pull to pieces if I like".
And at the other end of the scale, we have taught men to say "my God" in a sense not really very different from "my boots", meaning "the God on whom I have a claim for my distinguished service and whom I exploit from the pulpit..."
C.S. Lewis- The Screwtape Letters
For many, their religion is not a sacred responsibility borne out of love, but a weapon to be wielded in the service of hate. Instead of using the truths contained in holy gospels for self improvement and service to others, they search instead for those commands that rationalize cruelty, celebrate exploitation, and sanctify violence against those people they fear and despise.
God becomes a bludgeon with which to beat those perceived as "enemy"; the Almighty is transmuted to a truncheon to thrash any and all that disagree with a chosen viewpoint. Instead of serving God, god now serves instead the basest of impulses; the most degraded of desires.
Adversaries are "owned"; their suffering mandated by Divine will, and any opposition to such wanton malice can be damned as"demonic". God becomes a possession, and the rights of ownership permits unspeakable torments to be dispensed with joyless abandon.
They have traded their faith in the power of God for a faith in the god of power.
