Christians’ coded communication can backfire around someone who knows what it means. I touched on this idea a little in a previous post by offering up translations for common Christian offenses against non-Christians, but today we’ll go into some more detail. We’ll be doing something a little different, though. We’ll be talking about why this language is used, not just what it means.
One weird bit of right-wing fundagelical Christianity is their growing obsession with survivalist-style food hoarding. In this new trend, the worlds of apocalyptic fantasizing, awful food, eagerness to gloat, and sheer financial greed collide–and the results aren’t appetizing.
Last year we covered the scandal erupting around the Duggar family when eldest son Josh turned out to be a child sex abuser. Things aren’t getting much better for the parents or their son–but in a way, these developments are kinda good news for the rest of us.
People in thrall to a broken system often believe that if they follow the system’s rules, they’ll be safe from victimization. You’ve likely heard the rationalizations: if you don’t want trouble, then simply show respect to those in authority. Don’t cause waves and you won’t go aground on rocks. Those people who were hurt must have done something wrong, but if you don’t do anything wrong then you’re safe.
Australia, like most countries do, holds a census every so often to figure out how their population is changing over time. One of their census questions asks about respondents’ religious affiliation. And that is the beginning of a story that seems too weird to be true–a story that tells us one reason why the concept of church and state separation is so important.
Today I’ll show you some of the things that particular bunch of Christians do that drive home their awfulness. And I don’t mean the low-hanging fruit like “bless your heart,” gloating about hell, or the eternally-creeptastic “Daddy God” blithering. Rather, I mean the more subtle nastiness that they think is terribly clever but actually backfires on them–the stuff that totally mortifies their kinder, more compassionate Christian brethren (who are a lot more like us than they may realize).
Christians’ bigotry has cost them countless adherents as well–adherents who take with them when they leave an inestimable amount of money, time, and support. Today I want to set our phasers to “deep-fat fry” and show you exactly why their newest tactic regarding LGBTQ outreach is nothing but a smokescreen meant to disguise how unpersuasive their essential message is.
Tim LaHaye, co-author of Left Behind and general Christian reality-denier, has just died at the age of 90. Thus ends a career marked by denial, grandiose ideas, wish-fulfillment, and Endtimes fantasizing–and one that led its owner into positions of great influence.
Preston Sprinkle, in his book People to Be Loved, expresses some truly atrocious ideas. Arguably the most offensive of the lot is his suggestion that gay people should marry straight people. Today I’ll show you why he thinks that’d be a great idea, and why he’s wrong.
Normally you’d think that inaccuracies in Christians’ perception of others is just their problem. But their cultural flaws have a tendency of creating headaches for other people, too, not just for themselves. While they’re making strawmen about non-Christians and wrestling with their fictional creations, they’re getting an entirely wrong idea of what we’re really like and why we reject their claims and sales attempts. Today I want to talk about why Christians misrepresent us so often.