Reading Time: 13 minutes This busy Easter season, Ben Mandrell wants evangelicals to see him as a valid source of advice for learning to evangelize without losing one’s friends. But he has no idea how to do it himself.
Butts-In-Pews (BIPs) (measurement of Christian dominance)
Posted inReligion
Why Evangelicals Lean So Hard on Original Christianity
Reading Time: 7 minutes In an age when evangelicals’ only product — group membership — is more and more tainted and unwanted by the day, all Tim Keller’s got is lying his face off to try to at least retain a few butts in pews (BIPs) before they realize it’s all fake and bleed out the back door.
Posted inCulture
The ‘Christian Love’ Flows for Deconstruction
Reading Time: 8 minutes This past year, toxic Christian leaders have finally come around to viewing deconstruction as a very serious threat to their power. (And it is.) They’ve been responding to that threat in the only way they know: with ‘Christian love,’ which as usual looks like cruelty, false accusations, and endless hateful screeching.
Posted inGeneral
The SBC Isn’t Handling Its ‘Abuse of Faith’ Megascandal
Reading Time: 9 minutes SBC-lings like to imagine that their denomination is a loose federation of churches that govern the denomination from the bottom up. Yep, they’re all just big ol’ Jesus-ers who Jesus together — and, coincidentally, pool material resources to convert and control the whole world. The opposite is actually the case, as the EC demonstrated in spades that week.
Posted inGeneral
How Toxic Christians Are Destroying Christianity From the Inside
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hi and welcome back! Recently, I ran into a few different articles on Christian sites that all discussed a common problem. Namely, Christians themselves drastically influence their groups’ recruitment and retention rates. It made me laugh, though, because I know that the Christians who need to clean up their act the most have the least […]
Posted inGeneral
Christianese 101: Translating Evangelists’ Success Stories
Reading Time: 10 minutes Hi and welcome back! Sometimes, it’s fun to reveal the real meaning of all the Christianese that evangelicals use. Because oh, they use a lot of it. And the more Christianese you see in use, the less the Christians involved have to say that’s real and true. So when I say that evangelism might just be the […]
Posted inReligion
Beach Reach: What It’s Really About
Reading Time: 8 minutes Today, we’ll check out an overview of Beach Reach to see what it’s really about — and what it says it’s all about.
Posted inPolitics, Religion
The Sheer Racism in the Russell Moore Letters
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been talking about the two leaked letters from Russell Moore. Until recently, he worked for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) as the leaders of their Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). But a few weeks ago, he resigned from that position (and left the SBC iself) amid a firestorm […]
Posted inReligion
Fear: Why Hell succeeds as a Christian threat (Journey Into Hell #4)
Reading Time: 9 minutes Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been talking about Hell — as a concept, yes, but also as a beloved threat by a large number of Christians today. As threats go, this one’s absolutely ludicrous. There’s not a chance in Hell (hehe) that any aspect of it could be real. But millions of Christians are […]
Posted inReligion
Church Plants: Making Awful Lemonade Out of SBC Lemons
Reading Time: 7 minutes Yes, the SBC ended up with a small net positive in church additions to their denomination. Much of it seems to have come from church plants, meaning brand-new churches. But that number isn’t one to celebrate, as we’ll see today.