There’s a new sex abuse database on the block: Protestant Accountability. As the name suggests, it gathers and compiles information about any Protestant minister accused of sex abuse or the shielding of sex abusers. Especially now that the biggest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), has apparently decided to Read more
For years now, evangelicals have not been keeping up appearances with their prophecies. Gone are the exciting days when a big-name pastor could mangle basic astronomy and bellow about the SUPER BLOOD WOLF MOON, or play Bible anagrams to predict the RAPTURE for sure this time. Their predictions for 2025 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
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
In Alpha Course #13, the hosts kindly teach their viewers how to resist the wily wiles of the wiliest coyote of them all, Satan. Here, we learn that it’s not so much about resisting evil as it is about Jesusing the Jesus-Jesus just as hard as we can. And from Read more
Last time we met up, I showed you some popular Christian zingers they attribute to atheists. We talked about how these lists of zingers operate as a form of ingroup performance. Today, though, let’s pivot to one of the lists of zingers themselves. Let’s explore why its strawman “atheist arguments” Read more
A long time ago, I noticed right-wing Christians’ love for what I called ‘zingers‘: insulting retorts that they think totally own their enemies. Their zingers may mystify their targets, and definitely don’t accomplish what right-wing Christians think they should, but they just can’t stop deploying them. Today, let’s explore this Read more
In the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot of time to think about this entire Shawn Bolz hypocrisy and harassment scandal. For years, I’ve known that dysfunctional authoritarian religious groups sprout way more hypocrisy than more functional groups can manage. I’ve also known that they tend to be way Read more
Not long ago, Ryan Burge revealed some of the major disaffiliation drivers in Christianity these days, with the top contender being hypocrisy. In other words, 42% of Christians who disaffiliated from Christianity cited hypocrisy as one of their major reasons for leaving the religion. In response to his tweet, loads Read more