I consider myself a devout, God-fearing woman. As a result, the majority of men who have pursued me in my life have been religious. To an outsider, this would sound like a good thing, as society associates religious men as high value, family men. However, experience has shown me that “religious” men can be some of the most broken, wicked, and abusive.

At one point, I was in a relationship with a man who would literally preach the words of God on our dates, while confessing weeks later that he was sleeping with prostitutes and addicted to porn. I was also in another relationship with a man who held leadership positions in my faith community. Later, I found out he was exploiting his position to pick up vulnerable women and dating multiple girls at once.

I have developed a theory that religious men are oftentimes the most horrible men, hiding behind the mask of faith in order to hide their addictions, vices, and issues. It’s an overcompensation of sorts. I don’t have much experience with less religious men, but have a feeling they may be more authentic/consistent in their values. However, I may be very wrong. In general, I feel that women seek religion for spiritual reasons while men often do it for ulterior purposes.

TLDR: Beware of overly “religious” men. It’s quite possible (and likely) he is a low value man attempting to distract women from his actuality with the mask of religiosity.