Last week, yet another sex scandal broke out in right-wing Christianity. But this one erupted from a megachurch famous for a slightly-less-sexist approach to women in leadership. So today, we’ll see how everyone in power at Willow Creek Community Church ignored a whole bunch of red flags that could have alerted them to an alleged predator operating in their midst–but didn’t, because of their utterly dysfunctional culture.
In this installment, a TRUE CHRISTIAN™ wages honest-to-goodness spiritual warfare–and he wins, because of course he does, because this is a cringe-inducing Christian fantasy based around the idea of Jesus Power being a real thing that actually really exists and actually really does stuff in the real world. Today, Lord Snow Presides over an imaginary battle for imaginary stakes that today’s fundagelicals still think is all in deadly earnest.
A while ago, we looked at Paige Patterson, a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leader who landed in very hot water thanks to his intense misogyny. Lately, he’s been trying to snake his way back into hucksterism–only to discover that SBC flocks are way less receptive to such comebacks than they used to be. Today, let’s cry tears of peanut butter for this reprobate and his difficulties–and then let’s see how his return to ministry’s progressing.
Though it began in 1994 and ended quite some time ago, the Toronto Blessing left a lasting impression on today’s evangelicals.
When people realize that Christianity’s claims aren’t true, often they reassess a lot of their former experiences in the religion. And in many cases, they must. What onetime Christians once considered real live miracles while we believed those claims turn out to be simple exaggerations or misunderstandings–or worse, outright lies or even attempts to con us out of our time and money.
In this installment, a TRUE CHRISTIAN™ invades an evil, Satanic video game arcade. Today, Lord Snow Presides over a scene that broke my even, sent my spine’s cringe-o-meter off the charts, and brought up more than a few memories.
Recently, I noticed something coming up a lot in the commentariat and elsewhere: this news story about Cottage Grove United Methodist Church. Their leaders are taking a really unusual step to try to bring in new blood. They’re gonna do it by throwing out the old blood! Here’s why this strategy is doomed to failure right out of the gate–and why these Christians are desperate enough to try it anyway.
For a while now, we’ve been talking about the Toronto Blessing (TTB). That’s a huge evangelical movement that broke out in Toronto in 1994, then spread to most of the evangelical Christian world. As our community here discussed it and engaged with it as a topic, some very familiar themes rose to our attention: power, control, and authoritarianism on both sides of the leadership divide. Today, I’ll show you the conversation I had with an ex-Christian who was very much a part of this movement as it happened–and what we both realized as we talked about it.
Hello and welcome back to our conclusion to the Toronto Blessing series! Today, we enjoy a rare guest: LeekSoup, who hails from the United Kingdom (UK) and very graciously allowed me to pick his brain over the holidays. As a Read more
Hello and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been talking about the Toronto Blessing (TTB). This was a huge evangelical movement that broke out in Toronto in 1994. Very quickly, this movement skipped to other churches–yes, very much like an infectious disease–and Read more