Still, 53 recruits is 53 recruits. Who else is having this kind of success in the SBC right now? Almost nobody, that’s who. J.D. Greear coasted on similar success straight to the SBC’s presidency. I can well imagine Jordan Easley doing the same thing in a few years.
We humans are extremely context-sensitive creatures, and when something runs out of context, it can be a spooky experience for us.
What these men want in marriage isn’t completely unreasonable. So (I wondered) why can’t they find it?
Today, let’s talk about the prehistory of the Christian notion of Hell.
That’s what I saw in that one video that I wish I could find again. In the context of apologizing, an influencer got up on stage and began talking about her own apparent requirements for granting forgiveness. She told her audience that if someone comes to her admitting their mistake and owning up to it, then she forgives them. Ta-da! Very clearly, she was ordering her audience to do the same for her.
No deed exists that is so disgustingly harmful and hypocritical that evangelical Christians cannot excuse and allow it somehow. It simply needs to be committed by someone they view as important and necessary.
If life existed on Earth, my ten-year-old self figured, then it had to exist elsewhere. If our Sun had oodles of planets and moons whizzing around it, then other stars had to have them as well. And on those planets, who knew what might exist? It seemed far more likely to me that at least some other planets hosted life — and more than that, intelligent life — than that none possibly ever could.
If people have a stated morality that they’re not actually living, then they’re being inauthentic. Inauthenticity is not a symptom of sin nature. It’s just being human. For such people, the real morals by which they live can be found elsewhere. Whatever they’re living day-to-day, that is their moral code — not what comes out of their mouths.
Mike Stone, in ignoring his own preaching — not to mention his own god’s express command to Christians — reveals the truth about his religion. It’s just window-dressing for his ambitions and desires — as well as the easiest way for him to achieve his dreams.
Something has to give, when it comes to panicking businesses in decline. They must pick something to cherish and do it right. Sometimes that’ll mean forging ahead with a new customer base they can actually please and which can actually support them as a business. Other times, it’ll mean taking extra-good care of their existing customers. And evangelicals haven’t yet figured out where to land there.