Just before Easter and in a shocking event that many Christians are hailing as a modern miracle on par with the Great Flood, all 75M American ‘Nones’ (those who are “none of the above” regarding religion) suddenly converted en masse to one particular denomination of Christianity, Evangelical Methodist Church. Before Read more
A long time ago, I noticed right-wing Christians’ love for what I called ‘zingers‘: insulting retorts that they think totally own their enemies. Their zingers may mystify their targets, and definitely don’t accomplish what right-wing Christians think they should, but they just can’t stop deploying them. Today, let’s explore this Read more
In the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot of time to think about this entire Shawn Bolz hypocrisy and harassment scandal. For years, I’ve known that dysfunctional authoritarian religious groups sprout way more hypocrisy than more functional groups can manage. I’ve also known that they tend to be way Read more
As the new year begins, it’s time to look at one of the most amazing and spectacularly daffy practices within evangelicalism: Prophecy. It’s one of those dealbreakers within Christianity. It shows there’s nothing supernatural or divine at the religion’s heart. But evangelicals in particular can’t help themselves. They love prophecy, Read more
Last time we met up, we met Courtney Gamble, a young evangelical princess who discovered that her dream husband was actually a beast in disguise. Today, let’s meet Ashley—whose husband-hunt has taken a very different path. Like Courtney’s, Ashley’s story is cobbled together from a multitude of women whose paths Read more
Today, let me show you a story about evangelical marriage. It’s the combination of many, many women’s stories. And it is a horror story about misplaced trust, monsters in disguise, and small towns hiding way too many secrets. (This post and its audio ‘cast first went live on Patreon on Read more
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