Service evangelism is a recruitment tactic focusing on helping others somehow, thus impressing them, and then making the impressed people think that being helpful is just how Christians are. It’s supposed to make the impressed people want to join Christianity. However, you can likely already spot some problems with the 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
In Christianity, visions are supposedly divinely-granted peeks into the secrets of both the present and the future. But in reality, they work very differently. Let’s explore this exciting Christianese concept, see where it originates, and rightly divide the truth between what evangelicals in particular claim is the party line and 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
An April headline announced that ‘Young Women Are Leaving Church in Unprecedented Numbers.” After many years of right-wing Christian men’s complaints about the ‘feminization’ of Christianity, one would think they’d be happy to hear this news. After all, that means their pastors now have a lot more time to cater Read more
On June 7th, Paul Pressler died (archive). For many decades, he’d functioned as the Kingmaker of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). But he died in near-obscurity. Nobody quite seemed sure of what to do about his so-called legacy: the Conservative Resurgence of the SBC that turned it forevermore ultraconservative. You Read more
Paul Pressler, possibly the most influential evangelical in modern times, recently died. As evangelicals are wont to do when their leaders die, they are already hard at work analyzing his legacy. Well, sort of. One official Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) site seems eager to forget he ever existed. But they Read more
The 2024 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), or #SBC24, just ended. Its attendees, called messengers, had a full plate this year: drilling down harder on the red herring of fetal personhood, condemning churches that dare to hire women as pastors, and generally posturing at each other about Read more
Yet again, Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leaders have revealed that with their sex abuse crisis, the rot goes all the way down to the roots and all way up the ladder of power. Recently, federal prosecutors discovered that several SBC seminary leaders deliberately concealed information about one of their students Read more
Recently, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) released a long report that functions as a referendum on their Conservative Resurgence. Most SBC-watchers already knew it was a failure, but now it’s official knowledge. Here’s why it was a slap in the face to that hijacking movement—along with some speculation about why Read more