Churches have long been mainstays of American culture, particularly in smaller towns. But of late, churches have become a losing proposition for pastors. More and more of them are struggling to handle rising operational costs, not to mention dwindling membership. The worse Christianity’s decline gets, the more obvious it becomes Read more
Today’s story concerns the mostly-legal but entirely-sketchy money-making engine that undergirds evangelicalism these days. Even I had no idea how deep the rot goes—and I’m the one who began using that phrase to describe this exact bunch of conjobs! Come with me, and we’ll explore the various ways that evangelical Read more
In a recent Baptist Press opinion post (archive), a Southern Baptist asserts the absolute necessity of his tribe’s product—but he keeps misspelling the name of it as ‘Jesus’ and other similarly-beloved evangelical buzzwords. This post illustrates a singular truth about his end of Christianity: Southern Baptists wouldn’t be able to talk Read more