Emotionally very intense, but essentially an argument against a point of view that I don't have a connection to-- the idea that God is substantially inimical to people, but wants worship.

I was raised Jewish (the ethnicity took, the religion didn't), so I fear malevolent versions of Christianity, but I don't exactly hate them in quite the way that people who expect Christianity to be good seem to.

ETA: It may not be a coincidence that Chiang's "Seventy-Two Letters" is one of my favorites among his stories.

James Morrow (another sf author who spends a lot of time poking at Christianity) doesn't do much for me, either.

I seem to be jumping to conclusions about your reaction. What do you think made the story so affecting for you?