I kept running into these heartfelt evangelical condemnations of consumer Christianity. Eventually, I couldn’t help myself. I had to learn more about yet another attempt by Christians to judge and out-Jesus their competition. Definitions can vary, and so can solutions to solve what many evangelicals view as a deep systemic Read more
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
The day I realized that Christianity is a super-intense fandom with extra strings attached, a lot of keys turned in a lot of mental locks for me. Ever since that magic moment, I haven’t been able to view exhortations to Christians about reigniting their Jesus-passion the same. I just can’t 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
Infertility is one of the deepest and most devastating rifts between evangelicals’ marketing press and the actual reality of how they actually behave.
Look, Satan just attacks, okay? It’s what he does! He attacks!
Christianity suffers from a lot of capital-P Problems, and one of them is the Problem of Suffering. It gets the capital letter because Christians have never successfully squared the circle of an omnimax, loving god who still allows so much suffering in the world. And it turns out that progressive Read more
Most folks don’t like to take social risks. Evangelicals aren’t any exception to that rule. So they seek out ways to cushion those risks as much a they can.
A ringside seat to a bunch of Doctrinal Yardstick arguments about Ray Comfort.