Reading Time: 4 minutes We need to worship God because we need to fear him, because it’s only fair, and because we’re under attack by dark forces. Apparently.
fear
Posted inMyth & Folklore
What if she comes anyway?
Reading Time: 3 minutes When an old urban legend gripped the mind of my daughter, I walked her through it—but my own childhood fear was not far below the surface.
Posted inMyth & Folklore
The death of a useful monster
Reading Time: 3 minutes High in the Pennines in the north of England, in the gold-brown water of the River Tees, lives a creature named Peg Powler. She’s a mermaid, kind of, but she’s no Ariel. Peg is a river hag, with green hair and skin and a row of jagged teeth. And unlike Ariel, she lives not to make children […]
Posted inMyth & Folklore
Sleep tight or die trying
Reading Time: 3 minutes Kids raised in traditional Guarani homes may forget many things about their upbringing, but they never forget Jasy Jateré.
Posted inCulture
The Endtimes Just Ain’t What It Used To Be
Reading Time: 10 minutes It’s nice that he accepts the science around climate change — and about humans having brought our planet to the brink of utter ecological disaster. That’s definitely nice to see from a Christian. But he’s trying to use that potential future as a way to terrorize people into accepting his religious claims.
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 inGeneral, Religion
The Night My Fear of Hell Died
Reading Time: 11 minutes Today, I’ll tell you what happened the night I finally lost my fear of Hell.
Posted inReligion
The Evangelical Reckoning That Will Never Happen
Reading Time: 5 minutes After Donald Trump supporters attacked the nation’s Capitol Building on Wednesday, I noticed some evangelical leaders saying there’d be some big ‘reckoning’ due for American evangelicals. It made me laugh. Evangelicals don’t do reckonings. There’ll be no reckoning for evangelicals, not even now, not even after all the stunts they’ve pulled to regain their lost dominance. Today, let me show you why.
Posted inReligion
Fear and Rage: Evangelicals’ Two Responses to Their Diminishing Power
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hi and welcome back! Recently, I showed you an evangelical’s request that his tribe quit thinking so transactionally. Indeed, Mark Wingfield wanted evangelicals to change their approach not just to religion, but also to politics. He thinks evangelicals’ transactional mindset is absolutely tanking their sales — along with their reputation as a business. Whatever’s actually behind evangelicals’ losses, […]
Posted inReligion
The Bait and Switch of ‘Fire Insurance’ Evangelism
Reading Time: 10 minutes Evangelists sure like to threaten their marks with eternal torture! They do it to score new recruits for their groups, but there’s a double-edged blade lurking within their conceptualization of their product as fire insurance. Today, let me show you how this phrase works in evangelicals’ broken system.