Stephen King was born to a Methodist family from Maine in 1947. Their devout practice of their faith would profoundly influence his work as a writer, even as King lost his affinity for religion early on in his life.

King became a skeptic of organized religion when he was still in high school. His criticism of conservative Christianity can be seen as early as his debut novel, Carrie (1974), in which the titular protagonist’s religious upbringing leads to her bullying and abuse. Carrie White’s classmates mock her when they learn that she has never heard of menstruation before—a sexual naivety that is the direct result of her mother, Margaret’s, religiosity. Margaret believes that sexuality is inherently sinful, making subjects like menstruation taboo in the White household. Likewise, Margaret harasses Carrie for being “sinful,” locking her daughter up in a closet where she is forced to look at images of the Devil to frighten her. King uses Carrie’s experiences to show the parallels between peer pressure and religious judgment. This parallel is revisited in King’s 1980 novella The Mist, where a religious fanatic convinces a group of survivors that the unearthly mist that has trapped them in a supermarket is a sign of the apocalypse.