Evangelicalism is a predatory indoctrination-pipeline that starts at birth (“dedication services,” church nursery) runs through childhood (“VBS,” “fine arts,” youth group, private school) and travels through adulthood (Bible college, church weddings, gendered retreats).

This is why I’m TIRED of seeing liberal-bubbled nonreligious folk in comments sections victim-blaming 18-year-olds for “choosing” to attend evangelical colleges. The entire religious industrial complex is built to be one large feedback loop that spans across generations.

It takes YEARS for people growing up in this to “reprogram” — IF they ever even become exposed to alternative worldviews, receptive to incorporating new fact-based information into their schema, and have the courage to individuate from this generational fear-based faith-factory.

When you’re in a self-sustaining religious ecosystem where every decision has moral, eternal weight — even where you go to college — guess what your impressionable, fearful mind is going to do! Go where your entire community and likely parents will pay/support/pressure you to go.

Not to mention: 18-year-old brains aren’t even structurally developed yet! Their prefrontal cortex — which controls judgment, decision-making, and abstract thinking — is the literal mental equivalent of a tree that’s being pruned.