Evangelicals may fluff themselves up about their dedication to accountability all they like. The truth looks far different. They actually despise accountability, and do everything they can to avoid facing it. The resulting lack of accountability is the biggest red flag about their culture, and the reason why scandals pour more Read more
Hypocrisy is an endemic part of evangelicalism. All evangelicals are hypocrites, at least going by the official meaning of the term. In other words, they all behave in ways that run counter to the ideals they espouse. Evangelicals’ roadmaps are broken, so they cannot ever travel from Point Conversion to Read more
Frank Page has a decades-long and well-established history of not wanting to investigate sex abuse in Southern Baptist churches or holding sex abusers fully accountable for their crimes. Then he got himself embroiled in a scandal of his own.
But never fear: Almost immediately, Page got a pastoring job in an SBC church. But the story wasn’t over.
Not long ago, some evangelicals broke my heart. They were the family of a vibrant, impressionable, trusting, inexperienced young woman named Micah. In 2009, her husband murdered her. That husband, Thomas Pate, had pretended to be a true-blue evangelical to win her and her parents’ hearts. And he succeeded. It Read more
A recent story in Baptist Press (archive) caught my eye with a reference to a self-proclaimed nontheist. It seemed like such a strange way to refer to someone who holds no religious beliefs or affiliations. That observation led me through a rabbit hole of evangelical contempt for non-believers. When their religion’s Read more
Last time we met up, we talked about how evangelicals destroy their witness online. That means they act in ways that decimate their credibility as Christians. Now, evangelicals have engaged with the internet from the beginning almost, so you might well think that they’d be able to behave themselves better Read more
Not long ago, we talked about the evangelical concept of a witness. This Christianese term describes the sum total of their knowledge of Christianity, their wisdom in communicating it, their effectiveness as evangelists, and their overall credibility as people. Evangelicals have never been great at maintaining their witness. In the decades Read more
In Christianese, there’s hardly a word that pulls more weight than witness. It acts as a verb, noun, and more in evangelicals’ jargon. But in recent years, they clearly care less and less about it or its importance. They only use it to justify their worst behavior. Today, let’s explore Read more
The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) just can’t get away from nonstop drama. This time, it involves fabricated credentials, a swift resignation, and an equally swift replacement appointment. At least it’s not another sex scandal! Situation report: The Executive Committee The SBC contains a dizzying array of Read more
Scholars have long known that conservative politics and media distort and mischaracterize reality. This distorted reality insulates right-wing media consumers from contradictions and challenges to their beliefs. As a means to power, conservative politicians see this as a feature, not a bug.