As I’ve watched evangelicals decline in numbers over this past 10+ years, I’ve been witness to some of the most spectacular cope explosions on the planet. From the very beginning, they’ve been trying their best to spin loss after loss as the prelude to full recovery. Even now, they’re still Read more…
Last time we met up, we talked about the weird take on postmodernism that evangelicals have. They consider this philosophy one of their worst enemies, but they don’t understand even the most basic things about it. Despite that trivial little problem, their evangelism experts have been hard at work coming Read more…
For years now, I’ve offhandedly mentioned evangelicals’ enduring hatred of postmodernism. They don’t understand what it is, but they sure know they hate it! Today, let’s plunge into what it is, why they hate it so much, and why they can’t ever truly get away from it. (This post and Read more…
Another day, another sex abuse crisis in an authoritarian flavor of Christianity. This time, it’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses facing the music. Authoritarian Christians keep thinking it won’t happen in their church, right up until it does. And when—not if—it does, they act completely shocked. They shouldn’t. Any really authoritarian religious Read more…
On September 2nd, Pew Research released yet another blockbuster post about secularization. It reveals that the process of secularization tends to begin with lowered participation in religious rituals, followed by fading of religious identity and eventually even de-prioritizing even affiliation in name only. This study has got to be worrying Read more…
On July 31, Brent Leatherwood resigned his position as the leader of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). He lasted about four years in all, which is pretty good for an SBC leader with as many hardliner enemies as he had. And oh Read more…
In recent years, more Christians are facing doubt than ever before. But their communities and leaders still haven’t learned how to respond to it. They’re still largely using the same toolbox they had in decades past. Let’s explore that toolbox—and see where it fails to fit into real-world doubters’ experiences. Read more…
For years now, I’ve considered it a major red flag to find the presence of a church discipline policy in a church. These policies grant church leaders enormous, unchecked power over congregants—who don’t realize how that power may be misused until they themselves are caught in its crosshairs. Usually, the Read more…
For years now, pastors’ wives have been on my emotional radar. So when I saw an intriguing note about the upcoming Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Annual Meeting, it got my attention right away! There, a “biblical counselor” plans to offer ministers’ wives up to 90 minutes of free counseling. It’s Read more…
Over the past five years or so, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has been fighting more and more over their Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). This relatively-new subgroup of the SBC has become a proxy for the fight between the denomination’s two factions. One of those factions, the hardliner Read more…