Christians nearly universally believe that their god never lies to them. He only tells them the absolute truth. In fact, he’s compelled by his nature to tell only the truth. But if he never lies to them, then they have a lot of hand-waving to do to rationalize away the Read more
Recently, people have been talking about evangelism in crowded spaces with no way to exit—evangelism to captive audiences, in other words. The evangelists in question do it on purpose, of course. They even gloat about how much they love the fact that nobody can leave the venue. But their gloating Read more
We’ve finally arrived at the very end of Alpha Course, the UK-based evangelism series that stands unrivaled as the most popular one of its kind. To cap off their series, our hosts are going to try to make church membership and attendance completely essential to one’s experience of Christianity. But Read more
Personal evangelism abuses social roles and expectations to deliberately manipulate targets. No wonder the flocks hate it!
Faction warfare in the Southern Baptist Convention came to a serious head this past week at their big Annual Convention, nicknamed SBC26. The Old Guard enjoyed some very decisive victories, and the Pretend Progressives got BTFO’d. Today, we’re going to cruise into their mosh pit and see what happened. (This Read more
As the voting members of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) heads to Orlando for this year’s Annual Meeting, one thing on their mind is the fight over women in church leadership. One of their two major factions is itching for that fight to turn into a denominational civil war—again. Yes, Read more
For a long time, I’ve been watching the shakeups going on in the world of AAA video games. It’s impossible not to draw some parallels with Christianity’s decline in America! But a few days ago, a game developer (or “dev”) offered advice that stopped me in my tracks. It was Read more
For years now, I’ve said that Christianity wouldn’t exist today if it weren’t for its leaders grabbing and wielding legal powers of coercion 1800 years ago, then protecting it with everything they had. In recent decades, secular governments have been peeling away those powers bit by bit. But amid more Read more
You know it’s summer when we finally see our first SBC metrics drop! Last time we met up, I showed you some details of those metrics from the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)—and how those figures paint the picture of a struggling, rapidly-polarizing behemoth entering its managed-decline phase. But as we’ll Read more
Modern Christians may know that their ideal is having faith without any need for proof, but in their hearts they want good reasons to believe. For evangelicals, that tension is particularly intense: Their version of Christianity involves a very active, involved deity—but our world doesn’t show any signs of that Read more