From Patreon
Cooperative Program giving is way up—but not because of Baptists’ generosity
Donations to the SBC’s all-important Cooperative Program are a bit higher than expected. I think I know why.
Analyzing Christianity
Simple misfortune, or divine punishment for sin?
Sometimes when I look back at my days as a Christian, I’m thunderstruck by how absolutely exhausting it was in every single way. For a religion promising peace, rest, a light yoke, and vaguely-defined joy to its followers, Christianity brought precious little of any of it to any of us. Not long ago, I ran across a Southern Baptist Bible study about sin that really reminded me of that exhaustion.
From Patreon
The Aquarium: One conspiracy theory to rule them all
If the Aquarium were real, then wouldn’t this Aviary be the perfect smokescreen distraction from it? … Gosh, what to do, what to believe??
From Patreon
Discipling: Yes yes, but what does it look like?
A recent Lifeway survey reveals that many evangelical leaders don’t know what discipling actually looks like in practice, much less how to disciple. Here, we have another active case of yes yes, but what does it look like? And I am here for it because it reveals so much of what’s wrong with Christianity as a whole.
From Patreon
Our creepy evangelical Easter evangelism exhortation is here
This busy Easter season, Ben Mandrell wants evangelicals to see him as a valid source of advice for learning to evangelize without losing one’s friends. But he has no idea how to do it himself.
Analyzing Christianity
Evangelicals aren’t coping well with deconstruction
I do not recognize my experiences in this belligerent fundagelical’s listicle. But that’s kind of the point, in a way.
Analyzing Christianity
Captain Cassidy and the Haircut of DOOM
Today, we check out one of the goofier aspects of the Endtimes: how weirdly voluntary the Mark of the Beast always is.
Analyzing Christianity
How Hillsong is quickly falling apart
So far, Hillsong has lost 9 of its 16 American campuses. It’s a swift comeuppance for a church that seemed too big to fall. But Hillsong has shown, through these constant scandals, that their dazzling and trendy image is distinctly at odds with their lived reality.
Analyzing Christianity
‘Who’s Your One’ campaign is everything wrong with the Southern Baptist Convention
A traveling evangelist has begun upselling a failed 2014 evangelism campaign called “Who’s Your One?” Today, let me show you what this campaign is, who started it and who adopted it and why, how it failed, and most importantly what it tells us about the Southern Baptist Convention as a whole.
Analyzing Christianity
Complementarianism: Why evangelicals can’t have good relationships
The reason evangelicals invented complementarianism was to win a denominational slapfight. That’s it. The architects of it just wanted to demolish feminism. So they simply did not care how complementarianism would play out in the everyday lives of their increasingly-authoritarian flocks.