Not long ago, some evangelicals broke my heart. They were the family of a vibrant, impressionable, trusting, inexperienced young woman named Micah. In 2009, her husband murdered her. That husband, Thomas Pate, had pretended to be a true-blue evangelical to win her and her parents’ hearts. And he succeeded. It Read more
Thom Rainer functions as a living, breathing, nonstop rebuttal to evangelical claims. Back in Ye Olden Daies of evangelical power, he reigned as the leader of Lifeway Christian Resources, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) propaganda and publishing arm. During that time, Lifeway tanked in sales. Once he scare-quotes ‘retired,’ he Read more
Hot on the heels of discussions about doubt and divinely-recommended computer monitors, I found us an evangelical talking about how the tribe can feel certainty about their beliefs being true (archive). We’ve talked about this particular guy and his incompetent apologetics before. But today, he’s trying something different. He’s trying Read more
Last time we met up, I showed you an evangelical who very solidly considered faith and belief as choices people can decide to make. In the end, that evangelical decided that he’d choose faith and belief. As reasoning, he presented a strawman version of life without Christianity. After considering this Read more
Last week, I introduced you to a real live ‘Gen Z expert,’ Tanita Maddox. As I noted at the time, Maddox has been very busy writing articles and recording videos about her subject matter for other evangelicals, who apparently know absolutely no Gen Z people. One of her articles of Read more
In recent years, we’ve talked a lot about evangelicals’ utter inability to appeal to Gen Z. But the latest approach I saw at Christian Post (archive) might take the cake for potential hilarity. Opinion post writer Tanita Tualla Maddox has made a few suggestions that sound like they will backfire catastrophically Read more
A recent story in Baptist Press (archive) caught my eye with a reference to a self-proclaimed nontheist. It seemed like such a strange way to refer to someone who holds no religious beliefs or affiliations. That observation led me through a rabbit hole of evangelical contempt for non-believers. When their religion’s Read more
Last time we met up, we talked about how evangelicals destroy their witness online. That means they act in ways that decimate their credibility as Christians. Now, evangelicals have engaged with the internet from the beginning almost, so you might well think that they’d be able to behave themselves better Read more
For many years, evangelicals waged a loud and obnoxious war on Halloween. It figured prominently in their culture wars during the Satanic Panic, but even years afterward they regurgitated the propaganda they’d absorbed during those critical years. Somewhere around 2018, though, I wonder if they got tired of fighting Halloween. Read more
In recent months, Donald Trump has been talking about bringing back the anti-Muslim immigration ban from his single term in office.
His white evangelical fanbase loves it. Almost ten years into their decline, they are more touchy than ever about losing credibility and cultural power.