“The same God that didn’t answer your prayers immediately is the same God that didn’t punish you for your sins immediately. He is a wise and gracious God.”
@bromikemissions on X. From 2/9/25

A social poster wrote about disillusionment with the church…and having to unlearn its fear-based conditioning.

“I spent 45 years inside the church. I watched how good people became the “enemy.” It isn’t always from a lack of intelligence. It’s decades of spiritual grooming.

Here is how the pipeline actually works:

The Fear Foundation:

The conditioning starts with the “Devil behind every bush.”

• 80’s rock music.
• Video games
• Dungeons & Dragons

(This seems somewhat dated and very Tippy Gore-ish for contemporary purposes. If anything, the devil seems to have pretty well been scoffed at, routed out, or tamed in many religious circles. Charismatic leaders have a multitude of answers and strategies for how to defeat evil or at least keep it at bay. Fear doesn’t seem to be the issue. Idolatry does. It’s about a therapeutic God that make one feel good and happy.)!

When you’re taught the world is a minefield, you stop caring about your neighbors. You start looking for a protector.

2️⃣ The Survival Shift

Many were fed a gospel of self-preservation.

• “Protect your faith.”
• “Protect your family.”

Grace becomes secondary to safety. This makes love for others feel like a personal threat.

3️⃣ The Pulpit Pipeline

This is the 180-degree turn from the message of JesuPeople become vulnerable to any leader who echoes their anxiety. If a pastor calls a political figure “anointed,” the trap is set. They weren’t born hateful. They were trained for this exact moment.

4️⃣ The Cognitive Debt

Let me be clear:
Understanding this doesn’t erase the harm they’ve one. Dignity shouldn’t be debated. But seeing them as victims of conditioning changes things.

It prevents YOU from falling into the same trap of hate.

5️⃣ The Radical Return

The message of Jesus is one of hospitality, not self-preservation. We have to be honest about the spiritual food we consume. We have to be careful who we look up to for guidance. And we have to see people the way Jesus does. Which fear-based message did you have to unlearn?”

I wasn’t conditioned by religion to fear or to hate.’ I was in a small town Baptist church where love and grace were preached and lived. I came to know friends who’d learned punishment and hell, fire, brimstone, end times, and rapturing outta here before the suffering of tribulation begins. Those people often kept their heads down and God at a distance. I had no fear of God, felt loved and embraced by Jesus’ atonement… however it led me to some risk/taking and testing of limits in violation of what I’d been taught. It seemed I felt so loved by Jesus and so convinced of God’s mercy that whatever I did would be forgiven with no consequences.

When nothing happened to me as I tested limits, it got worse. It came to a point that I questioned whether God was real or if I really even knew God at all. God did eventually deal with my rebellion and risk-taking, which had arisen out of relationship anger. It was not easy when the accountability and consequences came and it was all at God’s hand as He called me to release my secrets. But God did accomplish it in a redemptive way that showed me His true character and won all of my heart. I am an all in devoted disciple and servant of the Triune God, and transformed. I’m still learning to serve and glorify him. I still have no fear but I am full to overflowing with reverence, awe, and adoration.

I think the social poster is reaching for a way to understand how people are so misled by religious leaders that really has little to do with the church and everything to do with the spiritual immaturity of people trained by a culture that drives people like sheep toward a self-interest based ethic, or what he describes as as “self-preservation.” The whole pre-tribulation teaching that began in the 19th century is the root of a lot of that. And thinking that by affiliation with certain groups can assure you’re covered and ready to go is such a lie.