As the decline of Christianity continues ever onward, let’s visit some beloved evangelical myths about how and why a small church grows—or withers on the vine. This goes far past what we talked about recently regarding church economics! The reality is far more pedestrian, of course, but it’s also something Read more
For a year now, many Christians have been thrilled about the so-called ‘Quiet Revival‘. This is a revival they think is happening behind the scenes all over the Western world. Even better (from their viewpoint), it mostly involves Gen Z too, meaning that Christianity’s demographics death spiral is reversing! Unfortunately, Read more
Just before Easter and in a shocking event that many Christians are hailing as a modern miracle on par with the Great Flood, all 75M American ‘Nones’ (those who are “none of the above” regarding religion) suddenly converted en masse to one particular denomination of Christianity, Evangelical Methodist Church. Before Read more
Churches have long been mainstays of American culture, particularly in smaller towns. But of late, churches have become a losing proposition for pastors. More and more of them are struggling to handle rising operational costs, not to mention dwindling membership. The worse Christianity’s decline gets, the more obvious it becomes Read more
A recent slew of changes to Jehovah’s Witnesses doctrines and practices has got people reeling in dizziness, and for good reason. It’s rare to see such a high-control religious group going this far to soften its weirder, more cultish aspects. But as we’ll see, they wouldn’t be doing it if Read more
Even before evangelicals realized they were in a full decline, they pushed hard on the idea of the offense of the gospel. This is the idea that somehow, their religion’s message massively offends normies. But ‘the gospel’ isn’t offensive at all. It’s evangelism that is offensive, and evangelicals have no Read more
Big-name Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leader Richard Land had some sad news to share with the flocks last month: Jerry Johnson, a die-hard SBC culture warrior who held important leadership roles within the denomination, had converted to Catholicism. More than that, though, Richard Land had some opinions about this conversion. Read more
Last time we met up, I showed you some popular Christian zingers they attribute to atheists. We talked about how these lists of zingers operate as a form of ingroup performance. Today, though, let’s pivot to one of the lists of zingers themselves. Let’s explore why its strawman “atheist arguments” Read more
A long time ago, I noticed right-wing Christians’ love for what I called ‘zingers‘: insulting retorts that they think totally own their enemies. Their zingers may mystify their targets, and definitely don’t accomplish what right-wing Christians think they should, but they just can’t stop deploying them. Today, let’s explore this Read more
In the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot of time to think about this entire Shawn Bolz hypocrisy and harassment scandal. For years, I’ve known that dysfunctional authoritarian religious groups sprout way more hypocrisy than more functional groups can manage. I’ve also known that they tend to be way Read more