The Games We Play
Redefining words: Love
Christianity’s been quietly redefining the word “love” to the point where I can’t really be sure that any Christian I talk to who uses that word is actually using it in a way that I would ever recognize.
Analyzing Christianity
Personal questions and a thwarted bathtub baptism
Once upon a time, I knew a man who was a really good person. He was a Christian, but you know by now that I already think that it wouldn’t matter what religion he was. Good is as good does. Well, he thought it mattered. He’d chosen to minister to Read more
Codex Disbelievium
Superhero Jesus: The chameleon savior who never was
During a very painful and lonely stretch of my childhood, I did exactly what fundagelicals say everyone ought to do: I turned to Jesus. Today I’ll show you how well that worked out for me.
Codex Disbelievium
Wherein Yr. Loyal Correspondent attends a pagan orgy
No, really, that’s how I ended up re-joining the Pentecostal church. About six months after leaving fundamentalism the first time, my boyfriend at the time, Biff, went to a church service with the specific intention of trolling the Christians there and ended up getting “exorcised” of a “demon.” (Scare quotes Read more
Codex Disbelievium
The Power of Prayer, Part Two (and the beginning of the end of faith)
I needed answers, and I needed them quickly.
Codex Disbelievium
The Power of Prayer: Part One (the Lead-Up)
It’s not an exaggeration to say that tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people were praying for Daniel’s recovery from brain cancer. He was one of the Big Name Fans in our denomination; we had ties to mission churches all over the world as well. I was one of the people who spent quite some time on her knees praying for Daniel’s recovery. Even Biff, who very rarely prayed anywhere but in church, prayed for him. We were absolutely convinced that God would heal him. Why wouldn’t he?
Analyzing Christianity
The cloud has moved: How I almost joined a cult
Communities get these ideas sometimes to live together and re-enact their ideals. It’s part of being human. But things can go hideously wrong in authoritarian groups, and I’ll show you how today.
Codex Disbelievium
Cassidy wept. (Or, the Problem of Suffering)
I still remember where I was standing and what I was doing the first time I ever saw a tornado. I was in my late 20s by now. I lived in the smack middle of Kansas in a tiny town notable mostly for being a convenient stop on the highway Read more
The Games We Play
Defining Moments: Rapture Scare, Part Two.
All this time, despite my misgivings about the very un-Christlike people in my church’s leadership and in my own little family, I spent a lot of time at the church, as one might expect. My mother’d been downright alarmed when she’d realized I was spending five out of every seven Read more
Analyzing Christianity
Mike Warnke: Inaugural member of the Cult of Before Stories
The Christian love of bombastic testimonies creates a ‘cult of before stories’ full of believers who richly reward their biggest liars.