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
When last we met up, we talked about a YouTube video concerning an abuse scandal that Bethel Church helped cause. Mike Winger, who created the video, painted the scandal as a purely Charismatic evangelical problem. But as we soon found out, his own denomination (Calvary Chapel) has the same scandals Read more
For years now, I’ve offhandedly mentioned evangelicals’ enduring hatred of postmodernism. They don’t understand what it is, but they sure know they hate it! Today, let’s plunge into what it is, why they hate it so much, and why they can’t ever truly get away from it. (This post and 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
While cruising around the Christ-o-sphere today, I happened upon a post about ‘navigating doubt‘ (archive). Written by Ron Tewson, it’s an absolute mess of bad logic, unsupported claims, and mischaracterizations. That all said, though, it’s also a perfect example of how Christians learn to push away their legitimate doubts about 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.
So, what is the goal of Beach Reach? Today, I’ll show you. I’ll warn you, too: it’s dark, even by evangelical standards.
Hi and welcome back! We’re quickly approaching the end of our Beach Reach training. Now, our trainers need us to know how to perform follow-up with our sales marks. Whether we failed or succeeded — though, let’s be honest here, we largely utterly failed — to make any sales, follow-up Read more
Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been talking about Beach Reach. That’s the short-term missionary trip organized by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). For two weeks, they unleash bright-eyed young volunteers on a Texas beach during Spring Break. There, they perform various acts of charity for partying college students — Read more
Today, let’s see how earnest SBC evangelists learn to use transactional small talk to open the door to a sale, at least in theory.