History and Science
Lord Snow Presides #1: Sovereign Citizens Edition.
Welcome to the first off-topic chat post!
Analyzing Christianity
The Cult of Before Stories: Desperate for Relevance
Bill Schnoebelen is one such storyteller. Once a popular figure in fundagelical Christianity, his narrative long ago lost its cachet. He’s had to reinvent himself–but is finding that once someone’s joined the Cult of Before Stories, that’s really hard to do.
The Games We Play
My Mother’s Dress
Clothes fascinate me. They’re a powerful sign of our own personal individuality and a statement about how we view ourselves, our place in whatever tribe we call our own, and what aspirations and opinions we hold. Ever since I was a teenager, I’ve been fascinated with the subject. Weirdly, until recently I wasn’t much for modern fashion itself, but the everyday clothes that people choose and wear is something I could talk about all day long. In my case, the sartorial apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. Today I’ll show you how.
Analyzing Christianity
We Welcome Ben Carson to the Cult of Before Stories
A long time ago, I wrote a post called “A Cult of “Before” Stories” in which I described what it was like as a young Christian to realize that my then-husband had constructed a testimony full of lies–and how I realized that pretty much all of the really dramatic testimonies I heard from other Christians were largely untrue as well. On the heels of realizing that these stories were untrue, I also began to perceive the unbelievably rich rewards Christians get for concocting and sharing these dramatic testimonies. I began to see my tribe as one that was simply obsessed with these “before” stories–thus, my name for the mindset.
Analyzing Christianity
The End of a(nother) Church.
Another church is closing–part of an overall trend in America. What does it mean?
Analyzing Christianity
The Cult of Before Stories: Heather Barwick, Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth
I wish it could shock me anymore, seeing a family ripped apart by religion. It happens constantly in this modern age–and will probably get worse, really. But this story touched me particularly today because it hit a few all-too-familiar notes in that discordant jangle that is the Cult of Before Stories.
The Games We Play
Defining Moments: Lying for Jesus, Library Edition.
Biff was so proud of himself, but I was so horrified.
Analyzing Christianity
The Cult of Before Stories: Shane Hayes, Part 1
A while ago, Kirk Cameron popularized a fairly-new evangelism technique: claiming that he knows all about atheism because he, himself, was once an (gasp! Shock! OMG!) atheist. He thought it gave him some kind of leg up on authority and credibility to say that he’d once been an atheist, and Read more
From Patreon
Operation Pitchfork and a moment of deconversion crisis
Like so many ex-Christians before me, for just a brief time I dangled on a tightrope between belief and disbelief as I moved from one world to another, from one worldview to another, from one entire working paradigm to another. For some of us that time lasts a good long while, maybe even years. For others of us, that abrupt flash of sudden comprehension, that crystallizing gasp of awareness, that feeling of all the puzzle pieces falling right into place, it happens in a heartbeat.
Analyzing Christianity
Spiritual Warfare: What’s It Good For? (Absolutely Nothing!)
Remember furries? Those are the kids who think that they’re “really” animals in human form. Back in the 90s they were the emerging weirdos of the internet and became our collective punching bags, a low status they bore with varying degrees of grace. You’d see them prancing around town in Read more