Reading Time: 9 minutes Hi and welcome back! We had to stop the presses today. My goodness, that Hillsong megachurch is just struggling hard these days, isn’t it? Yesterday, we learned about a third American church of theirs that’s been hit by scandal. Today, let’s review Hillsong’s recent past and newest scandal. And then, let’s wonder why they’re having so much […]
Pentecostalism
Posted inGeneral
Dancing in the Spirit: A Primer (Chat Post #6)
Reading Time: 9 minutes One of the hands-down most distinctive practices in fundagelicalism might well be dancing in the Spirit. I’ll show you what that is today, for our 6th Chat Post!
Posted inReligion
Of Awakenings, Revivals, and Other Christian Lies
Reading Time: 11 minutes One popular Christian lie centers on what they call revivals and the importance of these things to their world. Today, let me show you this oh-so-popular bit of Christianese and a few examples of the breed–and then why they’re so indicative of what we see happening in Christianity right now.
Posted inReligion
This religious discussion, like most, makes little sense. Duh.
Reading Time: 4 minutes A BBC panel discussion about the dwindling state of religion in the United Kingdom shows how frustrating the topic can be for realists.
Posted inGaming, Religion
If Christianity’s Worldview Actually Matched Reality
Reading Time: 10 minutes Many Christian soulwinners ask their targets to perform rituals like prayer in the hopes that their targets will experience something sublime while doing it. However, they face sharp limits to the usefulness of experience as a selling tool, namely because their religion describes a world to us that doesn’t match reality. I’ll show you what I mean today–by comparing Christianity’s worldview to the fictional world of Elfquest.
Posted inReligion
Before the Cult of “Before” Stories: Tricking Authoritarians
Reading Time: 12 minutes I came face-to-face with two completely untrue beliefs I held: that my god transformed people upon conversion, and that Christians would never lie while representing that god. Hooboy, don’t ya just have to laugh sometimes? I was so innocent. So this story is about how my then-husband Biff arrived at that dais to lie for Jesus. To get there, he had to fool a whole lot of people–and that is exactly what he did. Today, let me tell you what happened right before that devastating night.
Posted inReligion
When Teen Cas Innocently Suggested Testing a Miracle (LSP #73)
Reading Time: 7 minutes I took my religion’s claims seriously. In other words, I expected our claims to stand up to the same basic testing and investigation that any other claim would get. WOW, did that attitude not go over well! So today, Lord Snow Presides over how I got (gently) smacked down for daring to suggest a formal test of one of my church’s biggest miracle claims.
Posted inReligion
A Christmas Miracle: Speaking in Tongues at the Company Party
Reading Time: 9 minutes One of the most dramatic miracle claims that far-right evangelicals make is that of speaking in tongues. Something about it just looks next-level weird. The Christians who do it claim that their baby-babble comes from their god’s touch upon their spirits. But they’re wrong, and I know that truth quite well.
Posted inReligion
Captain Cassidy’s (Big Ol’ Huge) Deconversion.
Reading Time: 13 minutes In this blog’s first year, I spent a few months outlining all the different elements that went into my deconversion. I haven’t formally talked much about it since. Now, here, I want to put my deconversion ex-timony into one post. Here’s how–and more importantly why–I deconverted from Christianity, and why I won’t ever go back to it or any other religion.
Posted inReligion
Jesus Camp’s Moment in Time, Scattered
Reading Time: 10 minutes It’s a chilling look at how young children are preyed upon and brainwashed by the adults they trust. Eleven years later, the children featured in Jesus Camp are a striking sign of Christianity’s future. We’ll meet some of them today–and talk about the flaw in Christian thinking that led to their involvement with the camp in the documentary.