Reading Time: 7 minutes Yesterday, I showed you the story of Kimbyrleigha, a social media influencer who did videos criticizing MLMs before joining one. In addition to joining one of these predatory schemes, she offers her fellow multi-level marketing scheme (MLM) participants a coaching service. In this decision, she joins a massive trend in the declining MLM industry: scavengers seeking to make a buck before the gravy train makes its last stop in town. Today, let me show you these scavengers — and how the scavenging trend relates to other declining industries.
Good Ole Days
Posted inReligion
Josh Harris Is Kissing His Marriage Goodbye
Reading Time: 9 minutes Coming as it did right near the height of evangelical dominance in America, courtship culture rapidly achieved widespread acceptance in that crowd. But recently, a new development has demonstrated just what a terrible system it has been–even for Josh Harris, its creator.
Posted inReligion
The Sad Decline of Ashton in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #97)
Reading Time: 9 minutes We’ve talked about all kinds of stuff about the novel and its historical context. Today, we examine the book’s setting: the tiny town of Ashton. As with the book’s other elements, Peretti chose this one–and then set it in undeniable decline–for a reason. And we can tell what that reason was.
Posted inReligion
Stan Gudmundson: A Christian Culture Warrior Embodies Its Underbelly
Reading Time: 9 minutes Hemant Mehta recently found what he’s calling “the worst attempt at converting atheists [he’s] ever seen.” I’m not sure it’s the worst worst, but it’s definitely bad. He already did a great job covering the highlights, but I wanted to show you how this essay fits in with Christian evangelism. We’re deep into the culture wars now, and today’s special guest thinks he’s one of its emissaries.
Posted inLGBTQ, Religion
Coercion and the Global Marketplace of Ideas
Reading Time: 12 minutes The religion’s leaders 100% believe that there’s some magical way to return Christianity to its former power and dominance through marketing and superior sales techniques. This notion is just another example of magical thinking in Christianity, and I’ll show you why right now.
Posted inReligion
Hang On, Everyone! This Christian Knows What the Problem Is!
Reading Time: 15 minutes We’ve been having fun this week snarking a post in The Federalist to eensy-weensy little pieces. But who could blame us? The Christian who wrote it managed to outshine all his pals in finding the most WTF explanation possible for why his religion’s losing so many adherents and so much credibility and influence in the eyes of the world. That isn’t easy to do nowadays!
Posted inReligion
You Lost Me: And How They Lost Us
Reading Time: 10 minutes David Kinnaman always couches Prodigals’ disbelief in terms of how they came to disbelieve. The exact stuff we don’t believe doesn’t interest him nearly as much as how we related to our last Christian group–and how we might relate to another in the future.
Posted inReligion
An Ideology in Search of a Godling (At Easter)
Reading Time: 13 minutes Easter may be one of the most beloved holidays of the Christian calendar, but a lot of the celebrations that weekend take totally for granted that the occasion marks the honest-to-goodness death of a real live god who really was tortured, died, buried, and then rose again after a brief time in Hell. In fact, a lot of their religion depends upon there being a real live god at the center of it. But if there isn’t actually a god involved at all in the religion, then nothing works the way it should.
Posted inReligion
How (Not) to Fix Everything: School Prayer Edition.
Reading Time: 7 minutes Often we see Christians offer suggestions that don’t actually help the problems they see. Those suggestions almost always center around giving them back the dominance they have lost and letting them try to recreate the Good Ole Days they think existed back before liberals and feminists wrecked everything. And they don’t usually understand that their suggestions not only don’t work but also highlight endemic issues with their religion.
Posted inReligion
Persecution Complex: God’s Club and the “Religious Liberty” Scam
Reading Time: 10 minutes The central idea in the Christian movie God’s Club, which we reviewed recently and have been discussing off and on, is a very common talking point believed by right-wing Christians all over America: that they are facing unprecedented levels of persecution in this country, and thus are in great danger of losing their religious liberty–and from there getting imprisoned and even executed for their beliefs. Non-Christians may well feel baffled about why so many Christians cling to this idea as hard as they do–and why they seem to genuinely think that they are in real danger.