The administrators of BYU recently made a proclamation that really drives home exactly how out-of-touch Mormon leaders are with the next generation–and how desperate they are to win that generation back. Yes, everyone, they’re finally allowing students on campus to purchase and then consume caffeinated beverages from their cafeterias and vending machines.
The 2017 PRRI study, America’s Changing Religious Identity, has brought the religion’s leaders yet more bad news. And their response has been predictable.
I just noticed this hilarious new astrology system that’s showed up in Christianity: the Sacred Enneagram, so let’s make today about that! Everyone, say hi to the Christian astrology fad that’s just pinged Christian news’ radar (finally)!
Even I couldn’t have predicted the extent of that opportunism, however–though I could easily have told the opportunists involved here just how badly these ploys will backfire. Meet the Disaster Opportunists of Christianity, and see how their attempts to grab power for themselves through extortion fail epically.
I’m sure this news cycle suits some Christians to their fingertips because it all plays into a very peculiar part of the Religious Right’s psyche: their love of being heroes and their dislike of one particular very important detail that gets in the way of dramatic heroics. I’ll tell you what that dislike is about today–and how that worldview is keeping the rest of us from moving ahead as effectively as we could otherwise.
It’s a chilling look at how young children are preyed upon and brainwashed by the adults they trust. Eleven years later, the children featured in Jesus Camp are a striking sign of Christianity’s future. We’ll meet some of them today–and talk about the flaw in Christian thinking that led to their involvement with the camp in the documentary.
Where “I’m Not Ashamed” went seriously wrong.
Recently someone started a Twitter hashtag called #EmptyThePews to encourage Christians to let the horrifying events of this week be their breaking point–and to walk away from their churches to show that they do not stand with their racist leaders. Immediately stories began pouring through that hashtag–stories about deconversion and disengagement, indignation and anger, disappointment and betrayal: vast narratives revealed in 140 characters or less. I’ll show you why this hashtag matters.
Not long ago, we watched the Christian exploitation-fest that was I’m Not Ashamed. And we all had a lot to say about the movie–very little of it positive. Christians loved it, unsurprisingly, largely because it reinforced for them all the worst parts of their religion’s teachings and showed them a world that matched their worst fantasies. One of their very favoritest fantasies involves their unwarrantedly high opinion of themselves, and this movie served that fantasy up with a side of sweet-potato fries alongside a heaping helping of false martyrdom and fearmongering.
Eclipses are rare occurrences in our world–and even to someone raised in a science-embracing world they can feel mysterious. Little wonder that Christians have been co-opting these events ever since their religion got started.