Reading Time: 2 minutes In the recent past, conservative Supreme Court Justices have legalized bigotry by allowing businesses owners to refuse service to select customers. Conservative justices might do this again, and again and again. America is not a country with a well-evolved service industry, and many business owners do not want to make profits by receiving money from […]
evangelicals
Posted inPolitics
One man’s transformative journey from Republican to Democrat
Reading Time: 4 minutes My longtime best pal, Paul Sauser, a recent conservative-Republican-turned-Democrat and an evangelical Christian now uneasily reassessing his faith (without chucking it altogether), has, like many, Americans experienced somewhat of a religious and political transformation in the past few years. He and I have always been a bit of an odd couple, as it were—him long […]
Posted inReligion
Our biggest mistake: We did as we were told
Reading Time: 7 minutes OnlySky · Our biggest mistake: We did as we were told | Neil Carter Those of us who broke up with Jesus (he wouldn’t return our calls) are accustomed to having our motives and our sincerity questioned by those still happy with their faith. We get it all the time. We hear that we weren’t authentic enough, […]
Posted inThe Secular
Christian nationalists: Jesus must rule US government
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 […]
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 and Morality
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 […]