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We’ve been talking lately about system design in Christianity. Today I’ll show you Step 1 of how a bad idea can get enshrined in a system.

Last time we talked about the phrase “love the sinner, hate the sin,” which many Christians use as justification for the way they treat the people they don’t approve of. It’s definitely one of the most glaring examples of a place where Christian system design goes hideously wrong–but it certainly isn’t the only place where that happens.

There are a great many discrepancies between the goals Christians say they want to achieve, the ones they actually appear to want to achieve, and the ones they actually are achieving. These discrepancies form disconnects where their line of reasoning breaks down and their stated vs. actual goals vs. achieved goals can be observed. Obviously, one can see such breakdowns in a lot of places–it’s not just a religious thing, for sure! But this is a religion blog, so we’re going to look at a religious situation in which this disconnect is obvious. Yep, today we’re going to talk about one of their all-time favorite mantras.

I didn’t know if I could add anything to the conversation that other folks aren’t already saying and saying extremely well. But I’d been noticing something of late that I haven’t seen a lot of people discussing, and I’d like to do so now. I want to talk about how systems work, and how a system meets its goals.

First off: Happy Thanksgiving! I’m glad you’re here. Today I want to talk about kitchen disasters. Don’t get me wrong. I take pride in my skill in cooking. This skill was won only at a great cost in effort, and the fact that I ended up a good cook is the best evidence there Read more

If you’re seeing this blog post a bit late, here’s the writeup about the wide-release November 24th doodle from the folks at Google themselves. You see, November 24’s doodle celebrates the 41st anniversary of the discovery of that world-famous Australopithecus afarensis skeleton quickly nicknamed “Lucy.”

Hi all! Last time we talked about the first part of a new Christianese metaphor making the rounds, “salt and light.” We focused on the “salt” part of the metaphor last time, so today we’ll be looking at the “light” part. The term “light” has long been something Christians claim ownership of in the context of seeing themselves as the shining lamps that light up the dark world. We’re going to talk about the term itself, how I used to see it discussed, and how I see it changing in usage today.

Today we’ll be talking about the increasingly-popular Christianese phrase, “salt and light.” It’s one of those fundagelical concepts that has been creeping around in the background of Christian churches and apologetics for a while now–this idea that churches and Christians alike are supposed to be “salt and light” to the society around them. I didn’t hear the phrase much at all when I was a Christian; like a lot of their other weird ideas, this is a pretty modern one so it might have taken you by surprise too. We’re going to talk about how Christians conceptualize this idea, and then how it actually works out in reality, because this idea is yet another in a long, long line of excuses Christians use to be assholes to people. Knowing about this permission slip helps you see it when it’s deployed against you, and it’s one of those dog-whistle terms that is useful to know when you see Christians slip it into conversation.

While writing about Ben Carson, I realized that it’s been a while since I checked in on the various Christians I’ve discussed here, either on their own or as part of my series about the Cult of “Before” Stories. I thought it’d be fun to see how they’re doing nowadays. Let’s check in on a few of them!

There is something truly grotesque about the way so many Christians seem to get off on the idea of people burning in Hell. I don’t think they even realize they’re coming off that way, they’re so desensitized to the idea by now. The idea that a huge number of their family members, loved ones, and total strangers alike are one day going to burn forever and ever and ever is so endemic to their worldview that I’m not sure they even realize what it means or what their gloating implies about them as people. Today we’re going to talk about this mindset and what it means–and why good people reject it.