Maya’s Catholic-school scars aren’t just personal — they expose a theology obsessed with control. Brian Recker’s lens sharpens it: When your “relationship with God” starts with comply or burn, you’ve normalized coercion as faith. That logic seeps into politics, producing what Maya called a “Department of War as Jesus would have wanted,” and what Brian describes as heaven imagined with “no illegal immigration.” Exclusion gets sanctified, cruelty gets baptized, and domination becomes holy duty.
The better move is naming the operating system. A hell-centered faith doesn’t just punish behavior; it rewires affection, teaching parents that rejecting their queer child is love. Pastors double down, warning families that even attending a gay wedding is sinful—because proximity is dangerous. “Nothing fucks up love like hell,” Brian puts it, and he’s right: exclusion depends on distance, because closeness breeds empathy. Once empathy breaks in, the punishment gospel collapses.
That’s why Gen Z’s drift toward rigid churches shouldn’t be mocked as naïveté. Dogma calms anxiety by promising control, even if it’s toxic control. Recker points out that men especially are drawn to hierarchy, confusing authority with safety while cutting themselves off from connection. Maya jokes about crossbows for Jesus, but the punchline lands: When vulnerability is treated as weakness, domination wins by default. The alternative isn’t softer dogma, but stronger communities where care reigns supreme.
That’s the political punch. Brian has heard it as a mantra: “it’s all going to burn,” so why care about the planet at all? That afterlife obsession excuses climate apathy, while a heaven with walls justifies borders with teeth. He flips the premise: people deserve love, not punishment, and the planet deserves a future worth living in. Spirituality is about this life, not an escape hatch into the next. Maybe someone should let Trump in on that fact: Trump Wants To Get Into Heaven.
Catch Maya May and Brian Recker dismantle hell’s grip on politics, family, and faith and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
The Men Working to Transform the United States into Gilead
“Women are the kind of people that people come out of.” – The Rev. Doug Wilson, August 7, 2025
