When evangelical leaders tell their flocks to Jesus harder, they’re not just hoping to fix declines in membership and cultural power. They’re also hoping the flocks will use that non-solution to fix serious mental illnesses—like depression. Today, I’ll show you how they think this process should work, why it never Read more…
After almost a decade of relative obscurity, Zack Hunt is back in the news section of the Christ-o-sphere. This time, it’s over a new book he’s just published, which has led him to rent some billboards around Nashville. Both the book and these billboards directly contradict many beloved evangelical talking Read more…
The other day when we talked briefly about the concept of manifesting, I wasn’t expecting to encounter it almost immediately afterward. But that’s where I found myself a few days ago while checking out Christianity Today. This time, a Canadian pastor pits the idea against consenting to holiness, which he Read more…
In the Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus makes a lot of promises to his disciples. In between mass-healing people of physical and emotional distress through his magic, he promises that he’ll return before his followers “tasted death,” and that he’ll give them whatever they ask of him/his father in Read more…
In broken systems with flawed messages, group leaders would rather lay that blame anywhere but where it deserves to be.
Lately, we’ve been talking about Christianity as a fandom. It certainly shares a great many characteristics with secular fandoms: Object(s) of devotion, ritualized behavior, participation in a niche culture, infighting both within the fans’ own particular groups and with other groups in the wider fandom as a whole, and more. Read more…
In the consumer internet’s early years, evangelical Creationists started a war against, um, reality itself—but they insisted that no, they were actually at war with atheists. In the ensuing 10-20 years, they haven’t changed much. They still think their #1 enemies are atheists. And they’re still pumping out the same Read more…
For centuries, Christians have loved to imagine that each leader in their religion is really a servant leader. That may be true of some, but it’s certainly not true of them all. In Christianity, the worst abuses come from leaders who do not deserve to wield their power. And those Read more…
Evangelicals’ certainty in discernment is bad. Use these progressives’ certainty in discernment instead. Yep yep!
Lately, we’ve been checking out the friendship evangelism techniques pushed by a minor evangelical leader named Larry Dixon. For a few years now, he’s been on a tear about the benefits of being an evangelical like himself. We’ll talk more about the specific entries in this 52-part series later, but Read more…