In Christianese, fallen pastors are pastors who have lost their pastoring jobs after causing a scandal. But even good, rules-abiding pastors have a tough time finding employment after leaving pastoring behind. The ones trailing scandals behind in their wake have an even harder time. And in the twilight of evangelicals’ Read more…
Reformed theology is an add-on to evangelicalism that amps up its already existing dysfunctional authoritarianism and power disparities. The people who belong to Reformed groups think that their ideology is far superior to base-model evangelicalism—that it produces Christians whose Jesusing is both more fervent and more correct. But Reformed groups Read more…
Because this is a day ending in Y, evangelicals have recently sprouted a bunch more sex scandals. Yet again, these scandals involve the loudest-braying leaders of the tribe. And yet again, evangelicals were the ones to elevate these newest abusers to leadership and give them nearly unlimited power over those Read more…
Last week, a bunch of evangelical leaders agreed that what their religion needs is a bunch of revivals. Yes, revivals will totally and completely end evangelicals’ increasing right-wing extremism and entanglement with ultraconservative politics! They have no doubts about this startling assertion. This is far from the very first time Read more…
For one brief, shining moment, evangelicals and atheists went toe-to-toe in the form of debates. It lasted about ten years all told, this war of ideas. And then, abruptly, the entire squabble fizzled out and ended. Since then, evangelicals have sought out comparatively few debates with atheists. Today, let’s explore Read more…
Today’s story concerns the mostly-legal but entirely-sketchy money-making engine that undergirds evangelicalism these days. Even I had no idea how deep the rot goes—and I’m the one who began using that phrase to describe this exact bunch of conjobs! Come with me, and we’ll explore the various ways that evangelical Read more…
In the midst of Christianity’s decline, evangelicals continue to argue about why it’s happening—and more than that, what could end it. Today, we’ll explore their completely contradictory ideas both past and present, then match their ideas with the ‘casual dechurching’ we talked about last time. (This post went live on Read more…
Recently, some social scientists studied evangelicalism and came to some interesting conclusions: Its future won’t look particularly Jesusy, at least by current evangelicals’ definitions! Embracing that truth might just stem some of their ongoing decline. But since when did evangelicals excel at embracing the truth? (From introduction: Jordan “JD” Hall’s Read more…
Every single time something big happens to make evangelicals look terrible, a bunch of them start fretting about Bad Christians. So it’s not surprising that with the 2024 elections upon us, they’re starting to write opinion posts trying to sway the flocks away from what they view as distinctly un-Jesusy Read more…
Christian publishers, it seems, are facing a downturn. Christianity is simply so entrenched in American society that I haven’t thought much about the implosion of this formerly-humongous industry. But after decades of fantastic sales, Christian publishers face a decline that they might not be able to stop. Sometimes, a sign Read more…