Nearly 65 years ago, things were certainly different in the USA. Today, we live in a world of social movements, social media, AI, cryptocurrency, and virtual reality. At the start of the 1960s, fallout shelters were all the rage. And, if your neighbor had one and you didn’t, you could forget sharing with them in an emergency. They likely would have killed you to protect their own.
“On September 15, 1961, millions of Americans who subscribed to Life magazine pulled the latest issue from their mailboxes and beheld something remarkable inside: a letter from President John F. Kennedy addressed to them. But if the fact of the letter was a pleasant surprise, the glow wore off quickly: JFK’s news wasn’t good. “My Fellow Americans,” he wrote, “nuclear weapons and the possibility of nuclear war are facts of life we cannot ignore today.
“Kennedy went on to explain that the federal government would soon begin a program “to improve the protection afforded you in your communities through civil defense.” A national survey was in the offing, one that would identify “all public buildings with fallout shelter potential,” and mark them accordingly.
“In other words, the federal government was devising a way for 50 million Americans to survive a nuclear war by scurrying to the nearest basement. The National Fallout Shelter Survey and Marking Program had begun.”1
Homeowners began building their own fallout shelters in their backyards or basements. “Because fallout shelters didn’t need to withstand concussive force, a cottage industry of ready-to-assemble shelters began to spring up. One company in Philadelphia offered a shelter made of polyethylene for $2800. One outfit in San Francisco had a kit that could be shipped and then assembled as a kind of IKEA nuclear solution.
“Most were expected to be placed either in a basement or underground, the latter of which necessitated excavation deep enough to have 3 feet of soil overhead or 2 feet of poured concrete, with waterproofing and air circulation measures, along with periscopes to assess the conditions above ground.”2
Love thy neighbor as thyself was a Biblical principle widely ignored. “When I get my shelter finished, I’m going to mount a machine gun at the hatch to keep the neighbors out if the bomb falls,” one Chicago shelter owner told TIME. “I’m deadly serious about this. If the stupid American public will not do what they have to [in order] to save themselves, I’m not going to run the risk of not being able to use the shelter I’ve taken the trouble to provide to save my own family.”3
News about the effectiveness of fallout shelters began leaking to the public like the radiation leaks they were trying to avoid. Two weeks of sheltering in place wouldn’t have been sufficient time for nuclear fallout to dissipate. Months would need to pass before it would have been safe to leave the shelter. In that time, the air would have become unbreathable or non-existent, and the inhabitants would most likely be dead. Even if someone was still breathing, sewage would have been an issue and food supplies would have run out since the advice was to store enough for just two weeks.
By 1964, fallout shelters had gone the way of the hula hoop (a fad that lasted from January to October 1958) or the pet rock (December 1975 – February 1976). The shelter wasn’t much of a shelter.
For centuries, people have tried to create fallout shelters for their soul. While nuclear attacks may have been a fear, death and judgment are a certainty. To prepare for that day, many have tried everything from religion(s) to good works to self-improvement. All of those shelters fail. Matthew 7:21-23 reminds us that, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (22) Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? (23) And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
There are probably some well meaning salesmen out there selling these faulty spiritual fallout shelters, buying into one themselves and believing that it will work. But there are many who know that what they are selling will never work but if people are willing to buy, they are willing to sell. These phony salesmen are described in 2 Peter 2:2-3.
“And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. (3) And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”
When you hear of those who are selling fake spiritual fallout shelters, there’s no reason to give their motives the benefit of the doubt. God doesn’t and neither should we. Only sheltering in the Gospel and the salvation of Jesus will anyone be saved in the day of judgment.
I would imagine that after 1964, those who had built nuclear fallout shelters felt as if they 
had been snookered. The companies that sold the shelters must have gone out of business quickly while their executives went into hiding. I conclude with some harsh words that the Lord has for those who have spiritually swindled others.
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: (7) Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. (8) But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. (9) As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:6-9)
1https://www.history.com/articles/nuclear-fallout-shelters-were-never-going-to-work
2https://www.mentalfloss.com/history/cold-war/fallout-shelters-history
3Ibid.
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