In an interview, actress and social activist Susan Sarandon talked about having long-given up on "organized religion." Sarandon who "nurtures her spiritual self" by practicing meditation had this to say on what drove her away from the church:

I was in trouble from the very beginning in school, not because I was a rebel but because I asked what were deemed to be inappropriate questions. I remember in third grade being told that the only people who were really married were those married in the [church]. I said, "Then, how were Joseph and Mary married, because Jesus didn't create the church till later?" Original sin didn't make any sense to me … And, as I got older, a wrathful God didn't make any sense, or a God that would condemn someone to hell for their sexual orientation.

But at the close of the interview, Sarandon confessed, "The only thing I'm really afraid of is death. I still haven't gotten to the point where I think that's cool."