Reading Time: 4 minutes After I’d read PRRI’s writeup of their survey, I wondered what those Christians were saying about it. So I went looking. Today, I’ll show you what I found — and maybe we’ll figure out why white evangelicals have been silent so far about this survey.
2014 Religious Landscape Study
Posted inReligion
The Marriage Dilemma for Single Evangelicals
Reading Time: 7 minutes Not long ago, we reviewed a Christian book called Where Have All the Good Men Gone? In this book, author A.J. Kiesling sought to find out just why it was so incredibly hard for single evangelicals to find spouses to their liking. Then, we laid a lot of groundwork about the dysfunction going on in evangelicals’ marriage hunts and relationships. Today, I’ll show you the massive dilemma facing today’s single evangelicals — and what it tells us about evangelicals as a group.
Posted inReligion
The Fantasy and the Reality of Evangelical Youth Groups
Reading Time: 9 minutes Of late, we’ve been checking out the hilarious, utterly-lacking-in-self-awareness ramblings of aspiring youth evangelist Greg Stier. Obviously, his target customers, youth ministers, value and adore All Things Youth Ministry. However, youth groups in white evangelicalism aren’t actually very effective at their stated goals. Today, I’ll show you the fantasy — and the reality — of youth groups.
Posted inReligion
One Denomination to Rule Them All (Won’t Happen)
Reading Time: 10 minutes Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been reviewing a classic 2005 evangelical book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. In it, author Ronald J. Sider tried his darndest to convince evangelicals to start obeying their own rules. In this installment, I’ll show you a totally-out-of-left-field suggestion of his from Chapter 4. See, he wanted churches to […]
Posted inReligion
How Hell-Belief Inevitably Leads to Hypocrisy (The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience)
Reading Time: 10 minutes As long as evangelical leaders like Ronald J. Sider push Hell-belief, there’s no way believers will ever care about pursuing that Jesus lifestyle. In fact, it’s why their entire flavor of Christianity is marked more by hypocrisy than by adherence to their rules. Today, I’ll show you how Hell-belief leads to hypocrisy, and more importantly, why it always will.
Posted inReligion
Evangelicals React to Their Newest Bad News
Reading Time: 8 minutes These believers in objective morality can always find a way to turn their frowns upside-down with a little spin doctoring. In the wake of yet another bad-news study, their best and brightest have been working overtime to figure out a way to sell their religion’s current losses to the flocks as a win. Today, I’ll show you what they’ve come up with.
Posted inReligion
The Trainwreck Continues: Christian Responses to That 6,000-10,000 Closings Figure
Reading Time: 8 minutes We’ve been talking lately about the rash of church closures in America. A figure of 6,000-10,000 closings a year began circulating online recently, and it’s got a lot of Christians in a tizzy! Well, today let’s see what their big grand plan is to reverse that trend. (Spoiler: What they’re suggesting won’t help, and I’ll show you why, too!)
Posted inReligion
Why This Common Response to the Problem of Hell is Ridiculous
Reading Time: 10 minutes Well gyarsh, Shaggy, the Christian god can’t provide anyone with 100% solid proof of his existence because then we wouldn’t be able to freely choose belief or non-belief. He’s so eager for us to love him for his own self that he can’t possibly take the chance of corrupting our natural inclinations…. Obviously this whole line of reasoning is ridiculous, but today I’ll show you exactly why–and how this argument completely backfires for Christians.
Posted inLGBTQ, Religion
Soda’s Back on the (BYU) Menu, Folks
Reading Time: 11 minutes The administrators of BYU recently made a proclamation that really drives home exactly how out-of-touch Mormon leaders are with the next generation–and how desperate they are to win that generation back. Yes, everyone, they’re finally allowing students on campus to purchase and then consume caffeinated beverages from their cafeterias and vending machines.
Posted inReligion
No No, Gang, THIS Christian Is Totally Going to Fix Catholicism!
Reading Time: 15 minutes I’ll pick apart his speech today, and then show you–for good measure, since I’m helpful that way–why his tribe is actually having trouble recruiting and retaining members.