Reading Time: 4 minutes A disturbing New York Times article about the increasing fusion of U.S. evangelical Christianity and right-wing politics reveals a growing aspirational narrative thrusting Jesus front and center in American government. It is the opposite of what America’s founding fathers envisioned for their new, secularly governed democratic republic based on Enlightenment values. Yet, fundamentalist Christians since […]
evangelicals
Posted inReligion
New research says: Most Americans love God but ignore his impotence
Reading Time: 4 minutes (Writer’s note: If you’d like to receive emailed links to each of my columns when posted, please sign up here.) A recent Pew Research Center survey on U.S. attitudes toward the so-called “problem of evil” (and implied divine impotence) brightly underscores how the perpetuating power of religious indoctrination continues into the 21st century to corrupt […]
Posted inReligious News
Time to stop calling evangelicals “pro-life”
Reading Time: 5 minutes Thoughts and prayers. That is what former President Donald Trump, Senator Marco Rubio, and former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan had to offer up after the Parkland shooting which killed 17 people in 2018. Politicians did the same after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 in which 20 children were killed. Gun violence is […]
Posted inReligion
The Polarisation and Turbulence within the Evangelical Movement
Reading Time: 8 minutes The evangelical movement is a favourite target for liberal atheists like myself, partly because it is an easy target – people believing either silly or heinous things. Or both. You only have to look at Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland. However, in the wake of the rise of populism and Trumpism, evangelicals appear to have […]
Posted inReligion
Progressive White Evangelicals?
Reading Time: < 1 minute Is there such a thing? Well, and interestingly, yes. And what is worth a debate is that their views are more coherent, arguably, with what Jesus actually (well, supposedly actually) stood for: Stay in touch! Like A Tippling Philosopher on Facebook: A Tippling Philosopher Please support by sharing or donating, or both! You can buy me a […]
Posted inPhilosophy
Biblical Hermeneutic Circularity
Reading Time: 2 minutes Hermeneutics – interpretative methods and theory, particularly regarding the Bible – is fraught with issue. It depends where you start off. For Christians, they often start off with the idea of making the Bible say what they want it to say. This underwrites their confirmation bias. Let’s look at article 3 of the Chicago Statement. […]
Posted inEthics
Josh Duggar Arrested by Feds
Reading Time: 4 minutes Reality TV star and all-round awesome conservative evangelical has been arrested. And it looks like it could be serious, considering it’s the feds. People.com report (See the link for the whole piece): In the nearly six years since 19 Kids and Counting was canceled by TLC, Josh Duggar has faced a series of controversies that have rocked him and […]
Posted inUncategorized
Wondering Over Signs and Wonders
Reading Time: 4 minutes This is a great guest piece from the awesome Suzanne Titkemeyer. She used to be a fellow Patheoser and has guested a piece detailing a recent triggering from a (completely insane) video she saw. She has moved to Costa Rica, and you can check out her YouTube channel about her adventures living there. Over to […]
Posted inPolitics
Holy Cosmos! You WHAT? Evangelical Twaddle-Peddling…
Reading Time: < 1 minute Paula White, the presidential spiritual adviser, is nuts. Not just nuts, but properly nuts. This prayer service was led after the election. Watch this, look and listen to her absolute nonsense. After you hear her insanity, you can watch the fascinating montage of her…greater insanity. Of course, she served her purpose for Trump – to […]
Posted inPolitics
What Trump NEEDS but Won’t Get to Be Re-Elected (Including Many White Religious)
Reading Time: 6 minutes Donald Trump is a truly divisive figure. You only have to look at the threads here to see that. In the UK, you’d say he was like Marmite – you either love him or hate him. I’d add quantifiers to that: you with really love him or really hate him. He does have a path […]