Slowly, I’m working through the posts in our archive library like the Lone Ranger: Riding into town one day, fixing all its problems, and riding back out to the sunset afterward. I’ve got about 2200 posts to fix, and I’ll get to them all in time!
The post we’re examining today contains big words like oppressed and persecution. Its writer has misdefined them all.
The very worst sorts of Christian leaders and groups desperately need their followers to buy into biblical literalism, which is quite possibly the most childish and poorly-informed hermeneutic possible.
Franklin Graham’s behavior is not some aberration, and neither was his bizarre decision to bring Panahi’s abuser to a military ministry shindig. It’s par for the course in evangelical ministry.
Today, let me show you what discernment is, and why Christian leaders must teach their followers to use discernment instead of real critical thinking skills.
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.
Almost all Christians believe that they possess the power to do magical things. Of course, this isn’t ickie, off-limits magic. This is magic powered by their faith in their god. It’s more like a superpower he grants them just for being such powerfully faithful Christians. I nicknamed it Jesus Power.
We check out the prophecies of Gene Bailey, a buddy of Jim Bakker’s, and see how accurate Bailey managed to be.
Many Christians have this idea that their faith imbues them with a sort of glowing-but-invisible aura that both attracts and repels non-Christians. It’s their Jesus Aura.
I wonder how long Tom Buck struggled with the secrets he knew about Jeff Ford before using them to attack his faction’s newest enemy #1. One minute? Two? Less?
Tom Buck clearly hopes to escape the scrutiny that cost Paige Patterson his job—and not hinder his faction leader, Tom Ascol, from reaching the heights of SBC power.