In recent weeks, the right-wing Christ-o-sphere has been alight with outrage over Bethel Church’s protection of an alleged sexual predator and confirmed false prophet, Shawn Bolz. Last time we met up, we talked about how laughably inept Bolz is at what he calls prophecy. But there’s a far darker side Read more
We’ve mentioned Bethel Church of Redding, California a few times around here. It’s the kooky-for-Jesus-Puffs evangelical group focused on spiritual gifts like magic healing and prophecy. They’ve landed in some real hot water recently because of their silence regarding one of their endorsed (but false) prophets, Shawn Bolz. And they Read more
For years now, I’ve considered it a major red flag to find the presence of a church discipline policy in a church. These policies grant church leaders enormous, unchecked power over congregants—who don’t realize how that power may be misused until they themselves are caught in its crosshairs. Usually, the Read more
Somehow, evangelical pastors have figured out how to make their end of Christianity even worse—by implementing the ‘Moses Model’ of church leadership. It really is remarkable how they’ve turned an essentially dysfunctionally-authoritarian flavor of religion into such an extreme worst-case-possible scenario. But the Moses Model lets them make that transition Read more
An evangelical leader named Mike Bickle has been dealing with the consequences of his actions for perhaps the first time in his entire life. Throughout his career, he has escaped accountability by taking advantage of the serious flaws within evangelical culture. Today, we’ll examine those flaws—and see how they allowed Read more
To save his job, Christian Watts clung hard to a time-tested, long-honored evangelical get-out-of-scandal-free card: calling upon Christianese to escape the writing on his wall.
In a very real sense, Gracepoint weaponized the deepest yearnings and aches of its prey, then played upon their deepest fears to gain their ongoing compliance.
None of us thought Mark Driscoll would learn a thing after losing Mars Hill and Acts 29, the church-planting umbrella group he helped create, back in 2014. And nope, he sure hasn’t.
Recently, an evangelical megachurch pastor and abuser-for-Jesus, Matt Chandler, whined to an evangelical audience that people just aren’t accepting his favorite redefinition these days! Today, let’s check out that redefinition — and marvel together over how much the real meaning of love differs from it.
Hi and welcome back! On the heels of yesterday’s discussion about two fundagelical bullies, I ran into another post about how to identify and deal with a church-based bully! What are the odds? It’s an interesting post, though. I mean sure, it applies to a lot more than just Christian Read more