In the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), their leaders depend upon the flocks to donate lots of money to their Cooperative Program. Somehow, in the past decade those flocks have managed to just about maintain their level of giving despite their overall numbers plummeting. I never thought that level of giving Read more
Not long ago, I ran into an article about Dean Inserra, a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) pastor, and his thoughts about evangelism. Specifically, Inserra identified one group of people who were virtually impossible to convert to his brand of tribalistic white evangelicalism: “Good people.” In his opinion, “good people” resisted Read more
For years, we’ve had some good laughs over evangelical leaders’ ongoing attempts to strong-arm their flocks into performing more evangelism. Basically, the flocks just don’t wanna. And nobody can make them, not even their dysfunctional-authoritarian leaders. It’s just so funny to me that evangelicals and their leaders have these farcical Read more
Recently, a rising star in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), Matt Queen, fell to earth in the most singularly SBC way imaginable: By lying to the FBI about a sex assault that had occurred on the SBC seminary campus where he worked. After news of Queen’s guilty plea broke, one Read more
A few months ago, we talked about how Matt Queen and some of his seminary associates outright lied to the feds about a sex assault on their campus, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS). I suppose nobody told these Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) guys that the FBI’s investigators have zero chill Read more
As we close out the month of October, I want to close Spooky Month out with what evangelical leaders are saying about the end of an evangelical marriage. For many years, both evangelicals’ troubled marriages and their divorce rates have been the subjects of observation from onlookers. For years now, Read more
Last time we met up, I told you about a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) pastor named Chris Gore. Of late, he and his little Oklahoma church have been deeply entangling themselves in the divorce of one of their menfolk. (But to be fair, what else is there to do in Read more
Over the past couple weeks, a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) pastor named Chris Gore has been making the news—and not in a way his Dear Leaders would like. One of his former congregants, Brenda Blake Bicskey, exposed spiritual abuse committed by Gore and his lackeys. He did his best to Read more
More than ten years ago, the Christ-o-sphere was rocked to its foundations over divorce. As it turned out, evangelical couples divorced each other more than those from any other religion. Worse still (from their standpoint), atheists divorced at a lower rate than any other religious group! In the intervening years Read more
Last week, a remarkable story unfolded at the New York Times about the growing absence of women in evangelical churches. This in itself is not too surprising. Just a few months ago, we covered the beginning of that story. Women are, indeed, finding their freedom from that oppressive system in Read more