Hi and welcome back! Today’s that happy day when Americans celebrate fun, family, and delicious food. Well, theoretically that’s what happens, anyway. If you need to escape, recharge, or even just relax, allow me to present you with a bunch of curated posts here today. Find a nice quiet guest bathroom to hunker down in and enjoy these blasts from the past! Let’s get this party started!
Stuff Authoritarians Like: Redefining Words
Back when I was a fundagelical myself, we liked to say that our god had created the universe with a song. I don’t remember exactly why they thought so, maybe something about aleph. All the same, they expressed this idea with an exhilarated smile and often accompanying hand gestures. This belief, plus the myth about our god making Adam name the animals in Eden, led to our certainty that language and words not only made us human but also gave us power over stuff as if we were mini-gods ourselves. If we could name something (“bind it”) here on earth, that meant we controlled it in our imaginary world as well.
Maybe that’s why that crowd so loves redefining words. The more important the word is, the more they warp it into unrecognizability. When you have any kind of engagement with someone like that, be aware that they might be using the same words you are, but they may mean something completely, totally different.
And here’s what I mean by that:
- Authoritarians, Designated Adults, and Control of Language. A whisk through the ideas involved.
- Respect. It has two different meanings, and you will never get a forewarning when an authoritarian slides between them.
- Conditional Acceptance and Bigotry-for-Jesus. A journal paper examines bigots’ dehumanization of their hated enemies. Don’t miss how one woman realized midway through her interview that she was, in fact and in her own words, a “horrible person.”
- How “Condoning Sin” Became the New Way to Judge and Control People.
The Redefinitions series
In that vein, I wrote a bunch of posts very early on about the actual words that evangelicals redefined.
- Words (Have Power).
- Love.
- Convenience.
- Facts.
- Theories (Aren’t Bills). Bet you know what this one involves!
- Faith. Ran into a Christian equivocating about this word just yesterday.
- Tolerance.
- Sexism and “Agreeing to Disagree.”
- The Most Misunderstood Word (Isn’t Kingdom). Includes a rundown of how toxic Christians redefine something wicked as good!
Life after deconversion.
I had to totally reinvent the wheel just to deconvert. But that was nothing compared to figuring out how to handle life outside of Christianity.
- We All Crazy, and We Do What We Do. A guy deconverts from Christianity, becomes a pagan, then reconverts. The lesson? Maybe there really isn’t one.
- Taking the Religion Out of the Ex-Christian. Some unpleasant encounters made me realize, years ago, that deconversion doesn’t change people automatically any more than conversion does.
- What to Expect When You’re Deconverting. A list of things that will and won’t happen to most people who leave Christianity. The most important thing on the list: You’re gonna be okay.
- The Scary Superfluity of It All. Far from everyone having a “god-shaped hole” in their hearts, I discovered that Christianity is actually pretty danged superfluous—if not actively hindering. (Also see this post.)
- The God-Shaped Wound. Speaking of which, about that idea of a “god-shaped hole.” It’s really a wound, and it heals once we stop aggravating it.
- How Christians Lied to Me About Life Without Christianity. Really, why was I even surprised?
- Christian Lies About Deconversion. Also: Ex-timony Time in the comments!
- #ExvangelicalCatchphrases. A Twitter tag reveals more about right-wing Christians than they ever wanted people to see.
And here’s a send-off post for you!
Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate it! And if you don’t, then have a great Thursday doing whatever you decide to do! I hope you enjoyed this list of posts! I sure had fun making it for you.
NEXT UP: We look at a recent Christian survey—and get a reminder we didn’t even need about why we simply can’t trust any research done by evangelicals. Ugh, this was bad even by their standards. See you soon! <3
This post is an Off-Topic Wonderland! 🙂 What’s your favorite family-get-together dish? Your least favorite? The wackiest? Share the joy—the misery—and the RECIPES—here!
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