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!
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.
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
Sometimes when I look back at my days as a Christian, I’m thunderstruck by how absolutely exhausting it was in every single way. For a religion promising peace, rest, a light yoke, and vaguely-defined joy to its followers, Christianity brought precious little of any of it to any of us. Not long ago, I ran across a Southern Baptist Bible study about sin that really reminded me of that exhaustion.