More than ten years ago, the Christ-o-sphere was rocked to its foundations over divorce. As it turned out, evangelical couples divorced each other more than those from any other religion. Worse still (from their standpoint), atheists divorced at a lower rate than any other religious group! In the intervening years Read more
About ten years ago, when the trickle of deconversions began to flow into a river, evangelicals began getting all heated up about what they called unequally yoked couples. The term means a mixed-faith marriage, particularly one in which one partner is evangelical and the other an atheist. Evangelicals began slavering Read more
Many years ago, just before the whole David Koresh cult exploded into news in April 1993, I almost joined a cult in Waco just down the road from those guys. That entire period of my life feels almost like a fever dream. I was operating along mental lines then that Read more
Last week, a remarkable story unfolded at the New York Times about the growing absence of women in evangelical churches. This in itself is not too surprising. Just a few months ago, we covered the beginning of that story. Women are, indeed, finding their freedom from that oppressive system in Read more
For one brief, shining moment, evangelicals and atheists went toe-to-toe in the form of debates. It lasted about ten years all told, this war of ideas. And then, abruptly, the entire squabble fizzled out and ended. Since then, evangelicals have sought out comparatively few debates with atheists. Today, let’s explore Read more
Every single time something big happens to make evangelicals look terrible, a bunch of them start fretting about Bad Christians. So it’s not surprising that with the 2024 elections upon us, they’re starting to write opinion posts trying to sway the flocks away from what they view as distinctly un-Jesusy Read more
Last time we met up, I showed you an interview Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leader Philip Robertson did with some evangelical dude on YouTube. Last year, Robertson became the Chairman of the SBC’s top-ranked Executive Committee (EC). Alas for him, he came to this position at a really bad time Read more
When it comes to landmark freedom-of-religion cases, Kitzmiller et al v Dover Area School District et al (nicknamed Kitzmiller v Dover) might be one of the most powerful recent ones. Almost 20 years ago, this decision stopped evangelicals from sneaking religious indoctrination into public schools. Its lengthy memorandum opinion (archive) Read more
The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) might be the most public-facing and visible group within the entire Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). For about a decade and a half now, hyperconservative SBC leaders have publicly bristled at the ERLC and its leaders’ decisions. This week, though, the friction between the Read more
Especially when evangelicals like Matt Chandler get their grubby hands on real power, I really wish that they had some real accountability in their broken system. It’s hard even to imagine how this schmuck has a job still, after all the terrible things he’s done to his congregation. And yet Read more