Reading Time: 26 minutes We have a treat for you: Lisu has graciously written up part 2 of their review of the 2006 movie Facing the Giants! Things get gnarly in the second half. Strap in and Lisu, take it away! Today, Lord Snow Presides over Christian movies that accidentally function as anti-witnesses for the religion!
Magical thinking
Posted inReligion
Everything You Ever Wondered About Spiritual Warfare
Reading Time: 9 minutes The notion of spiritual warfare isn’t new at all in fundagelicalism. In fact, it’s a go-to standby non-solution to everything that ails the Christians who buy into it. I bet you had no idea that the gaining of a happy family life hinges completely on spiritual warfare, either! Today, let me show you magical thinking at its very worst.
Posted inReligion
The Cult of Family and Its Failure to Launch
Reading Time: 7 minutes Do the most extremist, authoritarian flavors of Christianity really have a monopoly on the best marriages and happiest families? We’ll see. Today, let’s start with the belief itself–and why it’s so important to those who hold it.
Posted inReligion
Thom Rainer’s Defense of LifeWay’s Failure (LSP #79)
Reading Time: 8 minutes Come join me for a weird ride through Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) politics, infighting, and a strange show of defensiveness from one of their biggest names, Thom Rainer. Today, Lord Snow Presides over yet another SBC attempt to make catastrophic failure sound like incoming victories galore.
Posted inReligion
Authoritarians, Designated Adults, and Control of Language
Reading Time: 8 minutes Authoritarian Christians try hard to police how people share information and how they share it. Today, I’ll show you why they keep trying to police how others communicate.
Posted inReligion
The Trainwreck Continues: Christian Responses to That 6,000-10,000 Closings Figure
Reading Time: 8 minutes We’ve been talking lately about the rash of church closures in America. A figure of 6,000-10,000 closings a year began circulating online recently, and it’s got a lot of Christians in a tizzy! Well, today let’s see what their big grand plan is to reverse that trend. (Spoiler: What they’re suggesting won’t help, and I’ll show you why, too!)
Posted inReligion
Wait, HOW Many Churches Close Per Year?
Reading Time: 8 minutes Recently, I mentioned a startling figure making the rounds in Christian-Land: this notion that 6000-10000 churches per year close in the United States. At the time, I couldn’t find the source for the figure. Today, though, I want to dive into it and see where it comes from, if I can, and figure out if it’s accurate. Then we’ll look at what it means.
Posted inReligion
My Reasons for Belief (Weren’t)
Reading Time: 9 minutes A while ago, I wrote about why I deconverted. I’ve also written about some of the reasons I believed in Christianity. Or at least, these were the reasons I thought I believed. Today, I want to show you what the main underpinnings of my belief were, and how I figured out that those underpinnings weren’t true.
Posted inReligion
Come Meet the SBC’s EVANGELISM TASK FORCE!
Reading Time: 11 minutes In this report, the SBC introduces us to the people they hope will totally save their bacon as a denomination. Let’s meet the EVANGELISM TASK FORCE, and learn what they’ve been doing all year!
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Downsides to the Hope Offered by Christianity: Complacency and Magical Thinking
Reading Time: 3 minutes Christian hope has downsides. Christian hope can encourage complacency, where Christians are unmotivated to improve a poor status quo, and magical thinking, where they drop their guard to televangelists, politicians, and other snake-oil salesmen.