Reading Time: 8 minutes Today, I’ll show you what Frank Keating did, how his effort failed, and how nobody in his tribe of theocrats cared.
Ronald J. Sider (Ron Sider)
Posted inGeneral
The Legacy of ‘The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience’
Reading Time: 9 minutes Now, fifteen years later, let’s see how well Ronald J. Sider’s suggestions went. How many leaders took his suggestions? How’d that go? Has his corner of the Christianity sandbox improved since then — or not? Today, let’s check out the legacy of The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience.
Posted inReligion
The Real Scandal of ‘The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience’
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hello and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been talking about a 2005 book by Ronald J. Sider, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. With its publication, its author hoped to spur evangelicals into pretending to care about their own rules. We’ve covered quite a few of its flaws so far, but there’s one I’ve been saving for […]
Posted inReligion
One Denomination to Rule Them All (Won’t Happen)
Reading Time: 10 minutes Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been reviewing a classic 2005 evangelical book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. In it, author Ronald J. Sider tried his darndest to convince evangelicals to start obeying their own rules. In this installment, I’ll show you a totally-out-of-left-field suggestion of his from Chapter 4. See, he wanted churches to […]
Posted inReligion
How Hell-Belief Inevitably Leads to Hypocrisy (The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience)
Reading Time: 10 minutes As long as evangelical leaders like Ronald J. Sider push Hell-belief, there’s no way believers will ever care about pursuing that Jesus lifestyle. In fact, it’s why their entire flavor of Christianity is marked more by hypocrisy than by adherence to their rules. Today, I’ll show you how Hell-belief leads to hypocrisy, and more importantly, why it always will.
Posted inReligion
Solving Exactly the Wrong Problems in Evangelicalism (Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience)
Reading Time: 10 minutes Recently, we explored a now-classic 2005 book by Ronald J. Sider, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. In it, Sider fell victim to the classic evangelical blunder. No, I don’t mean getting involved in a land war in Asia. I mean the classic evangelical blunder: he identified The Big Problem Here, but it’s not actually what’s wrong. Thus, his solutions will fix the wrong problems. Today, let me show you what Ronald J. Sider thought the problem with evangelicals was, and then what it actually is.
Posted inReligion
The Myth of Original Christianity in ‘The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience’
Reading Time: 9 minutes Ronald J. Sider really truly believes in a myth that has destroyed evangelicals’ chances of success: the myth of Original Christianity. As long as that vision clouds his mind, he won’t be able to perceive the real problem — much less suggest a workable solution for it.
Posted inReligion
Measuring Evangelical Hypocrisy in ‘The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience’
Reading Time: 8 minutes Yesterday, I showed you an overview of a classic evangelical book from 2005: The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, by Ronald J. Sider. Its author sought to persuade evangelicals to start pretending they took Jesus’ commands more seriously — because they commit hypocrisy to an extent and to a degree that suggests that they believe someone’ll set them on fire forever after they die if they don’t. Today, I’ll show you some of Sider’s findings that condemn evangelicals, and his response to it all in the end.
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.