Yes, the SBC ended up with a small net positive in church additions to their denomination. Much of it seems to have come from church plants, meaning brand-new churches. But that number isn’t one to celebrate, as we’ll see today.
Today, I’ll tell you what happened the night I finally lost my fear of Hell.
Hi and welcome back! As you likely know, Christians these days are quite distressed over how quickly teens and young adults are leaving the faith. One guy’s written what he claims will absolutely help parents keep their kids Christian for life. It amounts to instructions for the deliberate construction of a faith Read more
Hi and welcome back! Yesterday, I alluded to the mistreatment evangelicals heap upon people who express disappointment with their experiences in the religion. To be sure, it does happen. It happened to me, in fact! Yes, people join these evangelical groups on the basis of a whole bunch of marketing Read more
In the April issue of Christianity Today (CT), their cover story involved the most hilarious bait-and-switch attempt I think I’ve ever seen from any Christian site, like seriously ever. In this story, CT tried to pretend that there’s some big groundswell of single evangelical women (and some men) who are adopting children rather than waiting for marriage and procreation. Today, let’s look at this story they ran — and the real one they absolutely, positively did not want to discuss — about evangelical single moms.
Yesterday, we checked out some evangelicals’ reactions to the pandemic-related declines in birthrates around the world. These evangelicals’ general approach to increasing birthrates in general interested me. Instead of helping to make life easier for the women having these babies, evangelical leaders instead sought to shame, gaslight, scare, and strong-arm Read more
In the wake of the pandemic, many countries are experiencing a drop in their birthrate. That won’t be surprising or big news to most of us. Nor would most of us be surprised to learn that American evangelicals themselves aren’t immune to the social forces that influence everyone else’s family planning decisions. But evangelical leaders are certainly upset about all of this. They’re trying to blame the decreasing birthrate on sin and evil ickie straw feminism, instead of taking responsibility for what’s probably actually happening. Today, let me show you the story itself — and then show you how evangelicals are freaking out about it for all the wrong reasons.
Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been talking about a podcast called Gospelbound. It’s a production of The Gospel Coalition, a hard-right Calvinist evangelical group online. In this particular episode of Gospelbound, two guys talk about all the awful persecution that their tribe totally faces. Except this persecution is largely a complete Read more
For a bit now, we’ve been looking at an evangelical podcast called Gospelbound. In the specific episode we listened to, two Christians outlined their strategies for reversing their religion’s decline. Interestingly, both strategies reveal the speakers’ distinct lack of faith in their own religious claims. Today, let’s marvel at their accidental reveal — and ask what their strategies might look like if they actually believed that anything they said about their god was true.
Hi and welcome back! We had to stop the presses today. My goodness, that Hillsong megachurch is just struggling hard these days, isn’t it? Yesterday, we learned about a third American church of theirs that’s been hit by scandal. Today, let’s review Hillsong’s recent past and newest scandal. And then, let’s wonder Read more