The notion of spiritual warfare isn’t new at all in fundagelicalism. In fact, it’s a go-to standby non-solution to everything that ails the Christians who buy into it. I bet you had no idea that the gaining of a happy family life hinges completely on spiritual warfare, either! Today, let me show you magical thinking at its very worst.
When Christians try to sell us their religion, they bristle when we treat their assertions like subjective opinions. But even more than that, these Christians get downright annoyed when we respond to their earnest and tedious sales pitches by saying we’re glad that Christianity works for them. My goodness, a whole bunch of them just hate that phrase! Today, I’ll show you why–and the pity party a lot of Christians are throwing for themselves lately over it.
As we saw a while ago, these Christians share quite a lot of characteristics with multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs). These two groups also share quite a few pitfalls and shortcomings! When we hear one of these groups promising big huge changes, we are entirely within our rights to feel distrustful of their intentions. Today, Lord Snow Presides over what happens when an MLM really does make big changes–and why neither Christians nor MLMs want to do that.
Today, we’ve got a new essay from Thom Rainer to consider. In it, he expresses his sense of optimism about his religion’s fortunes this year. Let’s see why he feels so optimistic–and see if we can suss out if these are good reasons to feel optimistic.
Lately, we’ve been talking about authoritarian Christians’ new marketing push: the Cult of Family. Only these Christians know how to create and maintain happy families. Didn’t you know? But as we saw last time, these same Christians despise the values that go into that wondrous and rewarding task. They follow very different values. And they accidentally reveal, constantly, how those values turn out for them. Today, let me show you how toxic Christians let slip what their family lives really look like, and why they do it.
Not only do authoritarian Christians not know how to create and grow happy families, but they actively despise and fight against the values that go into that delightful and rewarding task.
The doctrinal yardstick illustrates one of the most profound and serious problems Christianity suffers. I know I’ve mentioned this concept a few times over the years. But today, let me lay it out, and show you why it’s such a big freakin’ deal. Today, Lord Snow Presides over a very serious problem for Christians.
Much of the advice that these authoritarian Christian leaders offer their flocks sounds absolutely useless–that is, when it isn’t disastrous! Today, I’ll show you why these leaders’ advice isn’t changing anytime soon.
They promise their followers that, by following their orders to the letter, happy, harmonious marriages and families become all but inevitable. Those followers will likely never even realize that their orders contain nothing that actually produces happy, harmonious relationships of any kind. Today, I’ll show you what I mean.
Like all marketing hype, though, this promise is largely imaginary, and fails far more often than it succeeds at its goal. Here is how these Christians tell their flocks how to achieve happy families–sort of.