Analyzing Christianity

J.D. Greear knows how to solve the SBC’s misogyny problem, too!

Poor J.D. Greear. Dude literally just got elected the Grand High Lord Poobah of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and he’s already stomping on my last nerve. Last time we touched on his solutions to the SBC’s years-long decline. Today, we’ll look at his non-solution to the problem of misogyny in his blighted, embattled denomination–and why it won’t work at all. And then we’ll look at why that’s the point.

By Captain Cassidy, ago

The Fruits of Complementarianism

Today, I’ll show you how meaningless Greear’s gestures are in the face of the SBC’s greatest triumph–which is also its greatest systemic flaw: complementarianism. He thinks he’s oh-so-evolved. But in reality, he’s simply battling to keep the status quo right where it is: in his lap. Worse yet, people have finally seen the real fruits of this doctrine.

By Captain Cassidy, ago

Lord Snow Presides Over Christian Weight-Loss Plans (LSP #47)

One of the more recent Lord Snow Presides (LSP) posts was about vegetarianism. It provoked a lot of discussion about eating styles in general–and with it, weight loss (and gain). And this might not surprise you much at all, but Christian hucksters have infested diet systems too! Today, Lord Snow Presides over conjobs in Christian weight loss. We’ll look at a few of these hucksters, and examine why they’re so toxic to their adherents.

By Captain Cassidy, ago

How Confrontational Evangelism is Failing Christians, and Why It Doesn’t Matter.

Christian evangelists act, in a very real sense, as salespeople of their ideology. And they are not making a lot of sales these days. They can’t even keep the few customers they still have! So evangelical churn has become a serious problem–not just for evangelicals, either. Not long ago, we talked about a Christian who thought he’d figured out a brand-new sales tactic. In that post, I touched on the two tactics Christian salespeople typically use. Today, I’ll expand a little more on the first of them, confrontational evangelism–and why it fails, and why Christians can’t stop using it regardless.

By Captain Cassidy, ago

Miracle Maxin’ and the Immorality of Miracles

Christians love to claim that their god works miracles in their lives, and this claim comes from their nearly-universal belief in the possibility of divine miracles. We settled that idea last time. Now we find ourselves moving inexorably toward the second and third steps of our pushback: If miracles really did happen, and could be demonstrated to have come only from the Christian god, Christians would still not be any closer to establishing that their god was actually a good divinity who deserved our worship.

By Captain Cassidy, ago

A Thief in the Night Retrospective: Where they (and we) are now

It’s been so eye-opening for me to see just how deeply and painfully these movies have affected so many people with their terrifying, traumatizing message. I’ve heard from a great many people over this past week who wanted to share how frightened they’d been by these movies. So we’re going to be looking at why these movies had the effects they did. I’ll start with a retrospective–come join me!

By Captain Cassidy, ago