For years after my deconversion, I found myself at loose ends about how to view the universe and my place within it. Christianity had given me a simple cosmology, but Christianity’s claims had turned out to be false. After deconverting, I wanted to build my worldview on claims that were Read more…
In recent years, more Christians are facing doubt than ever before. But their communities and leaders still haven’t learned how to respond to it. They’re still largely using the same toolbox they had in decades past. Let’s explore that toolbox—and see where it fails to fit into real-world doubters’ experiences. Read more…
Years ago, I wrote about Bill Schnoebelen as part of the Cult of Before Stories series. The Cult includes that vast collection of fake, bombastic Satanism-and-witchcraft-themed testimonies that hucksters peddle for attention and profit to evangelicals. These fake testimonies hit their peak around the late 1980s before petering out in Read more…
Many years ago, evangelicals wielded apologetics as weapons against their worst enemies: atheists. They lost not only their battles but the entire Keyboard Wars themselves, then retreated into their current walled-garden enclaves on social media. But a community member noticed a video that might just mark the return of those Read more…
Once again, right-wing Christian leaders are spinning bad news straw into gold, and as always it’s gloriously daffy. With churches emptying and scandals piling up, let’s unpack the bad news they can’t face—and how they’re lying to their flocks about winning the culture wars (This post first went live on Read more…
One of my very favorite Christian pretendy games is spiritual warfare. For years now, we’ve marveled at just how important this game is to right-wing Christians. The more loudmouthed the Christians, the more control-hungry, the more they love spiritual warfare! There’s a reason for this love, of course. Today, let’s Read more…
Evangelical men and women both have some serious limitations that make relationships difficult for them. But there’s one segment of evangelicals that sounds particularly upset at what’s going on in the evangelical dating world these days. Today, let’s look at the evangelical women who perform a magic trick that to Read more…
Last week, a remarkable story unfolded at the New York Times about the growing absence of women in evangelical churches. This in itself is not too surprising. Just a few months ago, we covered the beginning of that story. Women are, indeed, finding their freedom from that oppressive system in Read more…
Evangelicals may fluff themselves up about their dedication to accountability all they like. The truth looks far different. They actually despise accountability, and do everything they can to avoid facing it. The resulting lack of accountability is the biggest red flag about their culture, and the reason why scandals pour more Read more…
Hypocrisy is an endemic part of evangelicalism. All evangelicals are hypocrites, at least going by the official meaning of the term. In other words, they all behave in ways that run counter to the ideals they espouse. Evangelicals’ roadmaps are broken, so they cannot ever travel from Point Conversion to Read more…