In front of him?!? That’s so awful—for you and him! I’m sorry they did that to you.

My father wasn’t “saved” either. I was constantly told that he was going to go to hell, burn forever, etc, and that the only thing we could do was pray for him to see the truth. So I would pray and beg God to save him on a daily basis. If I forgot one day, I’d feel guilty that my dad might go to hell because of me. The adults at the church would ask if my dad was abusive or an alcoholic. I would tell them that he was a good person, who was always fixing things for other people, but they just looked at me with a combination of doubt and pity. They absolutely did not believe that anyone could be good without God.