Evangelism, or evangelical recruitment, isn’t doing very well these days. When you read between the lines of their supposed success stories, you discover that very few people who weren’t already Christian are joining their churches. Worse, even fewer people who weren’t already baptized seek baptism from them. But evangelicals don’t Read more
Last time we met up, I showed you how evangelical leaders are dealing with ongoing declines in church attendance. Mostly, they’re just insisting up and down that church attendance is not optional, people! Hey, that approach works in apologetics! So why shouldn’t it work everywhere? But an apologetics-consuming audience is Read more
Church attendance continues to tank across America. Downward trends already in place before the pandemic declined even further in the wake of it. It’s a tough time to be a business offering only one product—active church membership—in a country that increasingly doesn’t want it. In reversing the decline of their Read more
Out of every Christian lie, the one about Jesus’ magical transformation ability might be the worst. This lie tells Christians that belief in Jesus—along with adherence to a great many asterisked terms and conditions that only get revealed long after conversion—will transform them into better people. This transformation supposedly allows Read more
Endtimes believers tend to have very short memories for their own predictions. But today’s example was surprising, even by their very expansive standards. Today, we’ll trace an interesting shift in how Endtimes hucksters sell their products to worried evangelicals. (Some evangelicals prefer to write the term as separate words: the Read more
It’s not that it’s terrible advice. It’s that almost nobody will do it. Any evangelicals still sticking around this dysfunctional flavor of Christianity are there for a reason. And this advice conflicts with that reason.
Chris Carpenter has discernment on his mind. Well, that and train travel, apparently. But discernment is his main preoccupation. Recently, he had a guest on his podcast who has identified ‘7 Lies That Can Really Mess Up Your Faith.’ You’ll be happy to know that proper discernment fixes all of Read more
It’s fun to watch evangelicals accuse other Christians of legalism. And we all know why, right? It’s because they’ll never, ever convince anybody else of their opinions. All they have to evaluate anything is their own Doctrinal Yardstick, and it is not marked with any earthly—or really even any meaningful—measures. Read more
In complementarianism, evangelical leaders demand that women reject leadership roles in their churches—alongside any hopes of achieving equality with men. And many women do obey these demands. It’s not uncommon at all to encounter evangelical women who gleefully stomp on other women’s talents and futures in the name of Jesus. Read more
Last time we met up, I briefly mentioned an instance of truly predatory evangelism. Someone on the r/TrueChristian subreddit had tangled with what sounds like the slimiest evangelist in a pack of overqualified contenders. And our OP still has no idea in the world why this slimy recruiter is acting Read more