Analyzing Christianity
Jehovah’s Witnesses change course on the most JW thing of all
It seems very likely that the JW’s numbers look so humiliatingly bad that their leaders don’t even want to know what they are anymore.
Analyzing Christianity
A Southern Baptist warns the flocks to continue fearing the man-made doctrine of Hell
Without any hesitation whatsoever, I tell you that Hell is entirely a man-made doctrine. Some years back, we reviewed a movie (Come Sunday, 2018) about an evangelical leader who realized this. That leader, Carlton Pearson, lost almost everything when he publicized his change in beliefs. Amid Pearson’s recent death, a Read more
Analyzing Christianity
The Curious Case of the ‘Self-Proclaimed Nontheist’
A recent story in Baptist Press (archive) caught my eye with a reference to a self-proclaimed nontheist. It seemed like such a strange way to refer to someone who holds no religious beliefs or affiliations. That observation led me through a rabbit hole of evangelical contempt for non-believers. When their religion’s Read more
Analyzing Christianity
The Blown Witness: Why evangelical leaders can’t make their flocks behave on social media
Last time we met up, we talked about how evangelicals destroy their witness online. That means they act in ways that decimate their credibility as Christians. Now, evangelicals have engaged with the internet from the beginning almost, so you might well think that they’d be able to behave themselves better Read more
Analyzing Christianity
Evangelicals have always wrecked their witness online
Not long ago, we talked about the evangelical concept of a witness. This Christianese term describes the sum total of their knowledge of Christianity, their wisdom in communicating it, their effectiveness as evangelists, and their overall credibility as people. Evangelicals have never been great at maintaining their witness. In the decades Read more
Analyzing Christianity
Let’s Play: Apologetics Seminar!
As the good folks who sell apologetics materials will tell you, apologetics is of dire importance to evangelical Christianity. For evangelicals, that notion is likely more monolithic than evangelism itself. But the reality, as we’ll see, is far different. Today, we’ll dive into the first part of an apologetics seminar Read more
Analyzing Christianity
Yet again, Southern Baptist leaders caught making life harder for sex abuse victims
Four high-profile Southern Baptist Convention group leaders quietly filed an amicus brief opposing a sex abuse victim’s lawsuit in Kentucky. This lawsuit had nothing to do with them or the SBC, but if successful it could drastically alter the scope and number of lawsuits the SBC faces from similar victims.
Analyzing Christianity
2009: A looming decline that evangelicals refused to believe for years
I bet that nowadays, some people can’t even remember a time when evangelicals weren’t in decline. It’s been going on for a long, long time now. But when one evangelical leader predicted the looming decline of evangelicalism in 2009, the entire Christ-o-sphere erupted into anger and disbelief. They simply couldn’t Read more
Analyzing Christianity
Evangelicals’ witness is looking worse and worse these days
In Christianese, there’s hardly a word that pulls more weight than witness. It acts as a verb, noun, and more in evangelicals’ jargon. But in recent years, they clearly care less and less about it or its importance. They only use it to justify their worst behavior. Today, let’s explore Read more
Analyzing Christianity
Evangelicals might be tiring of their forever war on Halloween
For many years, evangelicals waged a loud and obnoxious war on Halloween. It figured prominently in their culture wars during the Satanic Panic, but even years afterward they regurgitated the propaganda they’d absorbed during those critical years. Somewhere around 2018, though, I wonder if they got tired of fighting Halloween. Read more