Last time we met up, I showed you some popular Christian zingers they attribute to atheists. We talked about how these lists of zingers operate as a form of ingroup performance. Today, though, let’s pivot to one of the lists of zingers themselves. Let’s explore why its strawman “atheist arguments” Read more
A long time ago, I noticed right-wing Christians’ love for what I called ‘zingers‘: insulting retorts that they think totally own their enemies. Their zingers may mystify their targets, and definitely don’t accomplish what right-wing Christians think they should, but they just can’t stop deploying them. Today, let’s explore this Read more
Conservative Christianity is largely performative in nature, and it must be. Conservative Christian leaders ache for their flocks to be transformed by a powerful, consuming faith, but almost nobody in their flocks actually has that, much less gets transformed by it. And they’ve known this for years, although they do Read more
For a couple years now, we’ve been hearing about certain aesthetics adopted by alt-right Gen Z Christians. So today, let’s check out the latest news about the alt-right, then check out why their followers find alt-right flavors of Christianity so appealing—and see what right-wing Christian leaders think about this influx Read more
Over a decade ago, Pope Francis slammed what he called practical atheism. With this phrase, he referred to Christians who don’t focus every single moment of their lives on Christianity, but rather live mostly like normal people. The idea caught on quickly with the right-wing Christ-o-sphere, whose inhabitants to denounce Read more
Tradcaths, a super-vocal, super-conservative branch of Catholicism, have been extra weird since Pope Francis died. I can see why, too: Most of them converted into Catholicism from extremely conservative hardliner evangelical groups, so they expect Catholicism to work like their old faith—just with extra incense and chanting. Nor do they Read more
Pope Francis finally made a direct attack on one of his major critics in the extremist, hardliner faction of Catholicism—US Cardinal Raymond Burke. The timing is no coincidence. It’s one more indication that the ailing organization is teetering on the brink of schism.
Communion is a big deal to Catholics in America. But about a month ago, a Catholic archbishop in America barred Nancy Pelosi from being able to take Communion because of her vocal position on abortion rights. The Vatican clearly didn’t agree with this decision, and she herself clearly didn’t either.