Churches have long been mainstays of American culture, particularly in smaller towns. But of late, churches have become a losing proposition for pastors. More and more of them are struggling to handle rising operational costs, not to mention dwindling membership. The worse Christianity’s decline gets, the more obvious it becomes Read more
Even before evangelicals realized they were in a full decline, they pushed hard on the idea of the offense of the gospel. This is the idea that somehow, their religion’s message massively offends normies. But ‘the gospel’ isn’t offensive at all. It’s evangelism that is offensive, and evangelicals have no Read more
Big-name Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leader Richard Land had some sad news to share with the flocks last month: Jerry Johnson, a die-hard SBC culture warrior who held important leadership roles within the denomination, had converted to Catholicism. More than that, though, Richard Land had some opinions about this conversion. Read more
A long time ago, I noticed right-wing Christians’ love for what I called ‘zingers‘: insulting retorts that they think totally own their enemies. Their zingers may mystify their targets, and definitely don’t accomplish what right-wing Christians think they should, but they just can’t stop deploying them. Today, let’s explore this Read more
Last week, while researching the post about the gap between behavior and ideals, I ran across a whole slew of stuff online about costly worship. Evangelicals sell this kind of sacrificial giving as a necessity for Jesusing perfectly. But it’s anything but. It’s just another adaptation to their ongoing decline, Read more
In the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot of time to think about this entire Shawn Bolz hypocrisy and harassment scandal. For years, I’ve known that dysfunctional authoritarian religious groups sprout way more hypocrisy than more functional groups can manage. I’ve also known that they tend to be way Read more
Not long ago, Ryan Burge revealed some of the major disaffiliation drivers in Christianity these days, with the top contender being hypocrisy. In other words, 42% of Christians who disaffiliated from Christianity cited hypocrisy as one of their major reasons for leaving the religion. In response to his tweet, loads Read more
Just when we thought the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) couldn’t possibly fail harder than it already is, Heath Lambert has arrived on the scene to help them decline some more. This hardline Old Guard pastor demonstrates exactly why the SBC is in decline—and why it won’t be leaving decline any Read more
When last we met up, we talked about a YouTube video concerning an abuse scandal that Bethel Church helped cause. Mike Winger, who created the video, painted the scandal as a purely Charismatic evangelical problem. But as we soon found out, his own denomination (Calvary Chapel) has the same scandals Read more
On January 17, Mike Winger released a nearly six-hour-long video about the Shawn Bolz scandal erupting in Bethel Church right now. Winger thinks that the Bolz scandal indicates huge problems within Charismatic evangelical culture. But he’s wrong. The rot goes completely to the core of hardline, right-wing conservative Christianity itself—including Read more