Reading Time: 7 minutes It’s not uncommon to see Christians point to 1945-1960 (loosely, “the 1950s”) as some kind of Good Ole Days that were wrecked by mean ole liberals who hate fun. The mythology these Christians believe is that people were much happier back then and that society was much safer and more law-abiding because everyone “knew their place.” Such Christians feel that modern society is making people unhappy–and public spaces more unsafe–because now everything’s all jumbled up and confused. But one book puts the lie to that illusion.
Happy Christian Illusion
Posted inLGBTQ, Religion
A Match Made in Hell for People to Be “Loved.”
Reading Time: 9 minutes Preston Sprinkle, in his book People to Be Loved, expresses some truly atrocious ideas. Arguably the most offensive of the lot is his suggestion that gay people should marry straight people. Today I’ll show you why he thinks that’d be a great idea, and why he’s wrong.
Posted inReligion
Evangelical Churn: A Defection, Observed
Reading Time: 10 minutes Thousands of people every day join the ranks of the ones who know. That number comes from Christian leaders themselves, who might have reason to misrepresent and inflate it–but I see no reason to think it’s not accurate.
Well, our ranks just expanded recently with the deconversion of the leader of a Christian rock band. I want to show you how his story fits in with the experiences of other people who’ve left Christianity (including me!), because next time we’ll be talking about why the tribe reacts to poorly to deconversions.
Posted inReligion
Christians and the Law of Conservation of Worship
Reading Time: 9 minutes I’ve been thinking lately about something I’ve noticed about many Christians trying to evangelize non-believers: they try to paint our various worldviews as very similar to their own, only inferior. Sometimes the lengths to which they’ll go to establish this commonality seem downright nonsensical. If you’ve ever wondered why that is, then strap into your seat because today we’ll be talking about the Law of Conservation of Worship.
Posted inReligion
The False Promise of Rebirth.
Reading Time: 11 minutes Today I’ll show you why the Christian narrative of rebirth is a false promise, one that isn’t fulfilled by the actual lived reality of the religion–and also why I don’t think it’s all that great of a promise anyway.
Posted inReligion
The Happy Christian Illusion (Isn’t Real).
Reading Time: 8 minutes Many Christians buy into a narrative that their religion offers about happiness, not realizing that there is a distinct and real disconnect between that narrative and the lived reality of Christians. Today we’ll talk about that narrative itself–what it is, how to recognize it, and how real it actually is.
Posted inReligion
Happiness: In That Moment, They Were Euphoric.
Reading Time: 8 minutes They Had That Euphoria-Euphoria-Euphoria-Euphoria Down In Their Hearts.
Posted inReligion
Come Home, Cardinal Pell: Another Day, Another Christian Predator Moved Under Another Shell.
Reading Time: 10 minutes We’ve been talking lately about how abusers operate within a broken system and how that system protects them at the expense of their victims. Today we’ll talk about one example of a broken system that is finally coming apart at the seams, and what is said about that system when its leaders resist calls for justice and work overtime to trick others into thinking their system is more effective than it is. First, though, let’s meet Cardinal George Pell of the Catholic Church.
Posted inReligion
The Two Things Christianity Got Right About Love (But Can’t Put Into Action).
Reading Time: 10 minutes Today, I want to talk about two things that my religious leaders were right about concerning love. But their other teachings rendered it impossible for believers to put these two good teachings into practice. Let me show you what they are, and why Christians can’t actually practice them.
Posted inReligion
The Predators in Plain Sight (in a Broken System)
Reading Time: 12 minutes It seems like there is a never-ending litany of miserable stories about abusers, predators, and scam artists lurking around Christian churches. If I wanted to write one of those blogs that concerned itself chiefly with exposing and discussing these people, I’d have to seriously step up my schedule–because there are that many stories, and each is more nauseating and horrifying than the last. But for some strange reason, Christian churches rarely engage with the problem they’ve created for themselves and perpetuate through their cultural practices and beliefs, and today I’ll touch on why that might be.