Analyzing Christianity
Just Jesus harder: Advice that always fails, for a reason
Jesus-ing harder doesn’t fix anything. It just keeps Christians chasing a dragon they can never actually catch, then blaming themselves for never catching it.
Analyzing Christianity
‘Use as example’: Southern Baptist self-protection in action
The whole document is horrifying reading. But one line in it particularly caught my eye. It read, “Use as example.” Today, we’ll look at this so-called “example” that the SBC’s leaders wanted to stand out as a perfect example of sexual predators in SBC ministerial ranks. Along the way, maybe we’ll see just why the people behind this document wanted to use this particular person, Perez Blackmon, as their ur-example.
Analyzing Christianity
White evangelical racism: Two bad tastes that taste worse together
How white evangelical racism became such a problem, and why it will remain so for the foreseeable future.
From Patreon
Ammon Bundy needs everyone’s attention again
Today, let me tell you what Ammon Bundy has been up to lately in the town I will only call home for a few more weeks.
Analyzing Christianity
“Everyone’s a slave to something” — except not really
When I was just a teenager, some evangelical set this over-simplistic equation in front of me: Pick your master, because you’ll always be a slave to something.
Analyzing Christianity
By fire and the sword: Christians and coercion
Earlier today, I saw a story about religious coercion from Religion News that just sent chills through me. A pair of sheriff’s deputies baptized a Tennessee woman against her will. As she put it, the officer who pulled her over told her that she had to allow him to baptize Read more
Analyzing Christianity
How Hillsong is quickly falling apart
So far, Hillsong has lost 9 of its 16 American campuses. It’s a swift comeuppance for a church that seemed too big to fall. But Hillsong has shown, through these constant scandals, that their dazzling and trendy image is distinctly at odds with their lived reality.
Analyzing Christianity
Complementarianism: Why evangelicals can’t have good relationships
The reason evangelicals invented complementarianism was to win a denominational slapfight. That’s it. The architects of it just wanted to demolish feminism. So they simply did not care how complementarianism would play out in the everyday lives of their increasingly-authoritarian flocks.
Analyzing Christianity
Not the Onion: an evangelical suggests using the Book of Revelation as a self-help guide
Well, it’s finally happened. I’ve finally found an evangelical who thinks that the Book of Revelation is supposed to be a Christian self-help guide to conflict resolution. I thought I’d seen it all with shoehorned misinterpretations, but apparently not! And his listicle displays the worst, most misinformed, most studiously gaslighting elements of evangelicalism as a whole.
Analyzing Christianity
How authoritarian leaders handle dissenters—and why
Authoritarian Christian leaders really do not like dissenters, do they? Today, let’s check out why.