Analyzing Christianity
Beach Reach Training: Properly Deploying Small Talk
Today, let’s see how earnest SBC evangelists learn to use transactional small talk to open the door to a sale, at least in theory.
Codex Disbelievium
The Silence of Velleius Paterculus (1st-Century Fridays #5)
Hi, y’all! Welcome back. It being Friday again, let us turn our attention to another 1st-century writer. This time, our subject is Marcus Velleius Paterculus (19 BCE – 31 CE). This Roman historian lived through the wildest years of the Read more
Analyzing Christianity
Beach Reach Training: How to Craft a Testimony (And Why)
Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been talking about Beach Reach. That’s a short-term mission trip (STM) organized by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). For two weeks, college-age SBC-lings descend on a beach during American universities’ Spring Break. During their Read more
Analyzing Christianity
Let’s Play: Beach Reach Training!
Hi and welcome back! Yesterday, we had a refresher about Beach Reach. That’s the annual Spring Break missionary trip sponsored by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Every year, hundreds of young SBC-lings converge on a beach in Texas to offer Read more
Analyzing Christianity
Beach Reach: What It’s Really About
Today, we’ll check out an overview of Beach Reach to see what it’s really about — and what it says it’s all about.
History and Science
DNA Study Tells Us That We’re Barely ‘Human’ At All (LSP #201)
Today, Lord Snow Presides over the many, many facets of our humanity — and the messy DNA that makes us so.
From Patreon
New DNA study tells us that we’re barely human at all
Today, Lord Snow Presides over the many, many facets of our humanity — and the messy DNA that makes us so.
Analyzing Christianity
The Southern Baptist Convention Faced Serious Declines Everywhere in 2020
Today, let’s go over the declines that the SBC faced all over in 2020, and talk about why those declines likely happened.
From Patreon
The SBC’s 2021 Book of Reports Is Out!
As is our wont each year, we now turn our gaze to the 2021 Annual Report of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). These reports — as biased, uneven, and spin-doctored as they always are — are of great importance to anybody keeping tabs on evangelical Christians. They give us a great deal of information. Not only do these reports cover the previous year, but they also give us hints about evangelicals’ strategies for the year(s) ahead. They even reveal the various stresses on evangelical leaders’ minds! So today, let’s check out this year’s report for some basic stats.
Codex Disbelievium
The Silence of Philo of Alexandria (1st-Century Fridays #4)
Hi and welcome back! For today’s 1st-Century Friday, we have a treat in store: Philo of Alexandria, also called Philo Judaeus. He lived smack in the middle of that critically-important period we’ve identified as the 30s, roughly. Not only that, Read more