Reading Time: 8 minutes Today, let me show you how good advice goes bad in the cargo cult of evangelical marriage counseling.
Jesus Power
Posted inReligion
Evangelical Men’s Anger: The Visualization Process That Can’t Heal It
Reading Time: 6 minutes Last week, we touched on the anger of white evangelical men. There sure does seem to be a lot of anger there, and it’s only getting worse as white evangelicals’ cultural dominance dissipates. Their leaders’ conventional wisdom for dealing with anger is worse than useless, however. It’s not just because there’s no god in the middle of things making prayers work and whatnot. Rather, it’s because their vaguely-worded, folksy processes can’t actually help with anything real that’s gone seriously wrong. And today, I’ll show you this inadequate tool that white evangelical men have to help with their vast anger.
Posted inGeneral
Karen Witemeyer and the Fuss Over Her Romance Novel
Reading Time: 9 minutes Recently, a Christian romance novelist, Karen Witemeyer, wrote a book called At Love’s Command. On July 31st, the Romance Writers of America (RWA) awarded this book the win for ‘best romance with religious/spiritual elements.’ It’s a deeply disturbing book due to its racism toward Native Americans — and its casual revisionist treatment of real-world events like the slaughter of Lakota Sioux at Wounded Knee. Karen Witemeyer and her professional organization don’t understand all the fuss here at all! Today, I’ll show you that fuss — and then why these Christians are just soooooo mystified.
Posted inGeneral
Overcoming Objections: Evangelism As Predatory Salesmanship
Reading Time: 10 minutes It ought to disturb non-Christians to know about the sheer amount of advice that Christians make available for free online about overcoming evangelism objections. Worse, Christians phrase this advice exactly as such. Today, let me show you some of the stone-cold salesmanship practiced around evangelism — and why that’s actually not a bad thing for Christians.
Posted inReligion
An Overview of ‘The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience’
Reading Time: 7 minutes Recently, I got my hands on a classic evangelical book from 2005, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. In it, Ronald J. Sider laments the current state of evangelicalism — and suggests some key reforms. It’s a funny little book, and I wanted to show it to you. Today, let’s look at what Ronald J. Sider considers to be the big problem here.
Posted inGeneral
An Exorcism in Christian Fantasy-Land in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #128, Ch. 15)
Reading Time: 11 minutes In this installment, a TRUE CHRISTIAN™ wages honest-to-goodness spiritual warfare–and he wins, because of course he does, because this is a cringe-inducing Christian fantasy based around the idea of Jesus Power being a real thing that actually really exists and actually really does stuff in the real world. Today, Lord Snow Presides over an imaginary battle for imaginary stakes that today’s fundagelicals still think is all in deadly earnest.
Posted inReligion
The Christian Slapfight Over the Toronto Blessing Reveals a Dealbreaker Problem
Reading Time: 10 minutes This whole thing happened decades ago, but they’re still not ready to make nice–even at the cost of their entire religion’s credibility. Today, let me show you what they argued about, and why these huge doctrinal fights should matter to them–but never do.
Posted inReligion
How the Toronto Blessing’s Influences Created Chaos
Reading Time: 10 minutes Most folks know well that evangelicals live in a haze of alternative facts. Several times here, we’ve examined this or that belief they hold about themselves that has turned out to be completely false–if not the polar opposite of reality. Their beliefs about the Toronto Blessing (TTB) of the mid-90s don’t work any differently. Today, I’ll show you how the lofty ideals of the Toronto Blessing got completely out of hand–and why evangelical leaders were powerless to stop it.
Posted inReligion
The Muddle of Influences That Created the Toronto Blessing
Reading Time: 11 minutes Today, I’ll show you both the obvious influences and the undercurrents that went into the making of the Toronto Blessing. Nothing about this movement is divine or miraculous–and I’ll show you exactly why not.
Posted inReligion
Todd Bentley Gets By With A Little Help From His Friends
Reading Time: 10 minutes Last time we met up, I showed you a recent development in the evangelical world: Todd Bentley is in trouble again. Today, let’s look at what’s going on with his current troubles and ask why he’s still being allowed to drop-kick sick people for Jesus.