I am quite sure that most religious people would not even take offense at the idea that their religion is at least partially about control or related to control. That's actually kind of the point of a lot of it. "Trust in God and follow his commandments" and all that stuff sort of implies that there are rules you should be following and that you have accepted the responsibility to try and follow them.

I guess I don't see why control is necessarily a bad thing. Most people would say that something like self-control is (in moderation like all things) a virtue. Certainly I see a lot more people that could use more control than I see people that are so controlled (by either themselves or others) that they could use less.

I think you mean very different things by "control." He's talking about "control of man over man" facilitated by religion. I think that totally happens and bad when it doesn't.

You're talking about "man consciously accepting his obligation to G-d". That is very positive and in fact to chose to live this way is the highest exercise of free will.

How many religions do you know where its adherents are just fine with you leaving the faith behind?

Because if they aren't, then they're about control.