Reading Time: 12 minutes When an abusive evangelical pastor, Christian Watts, tried to downplay his grooming of a teenager decades earlier, he described his predation as ‘my past sin.’ That’s a time-honored tactic for people caught in his exact circumstances. Let’s take a closer look at this tactic to see why it works so well in evangelical culture.
Sin Nature
Posted inReligion
The Hillsong scandal—and damage control—continues
Reading Time: 8 minutes A few days ago, the world learned that Brian Houston–beleaguered founder of Hillsong Church, a global megachurch–violated his church’s code of conduct with “inappropriate behavior” directed at two women. He’s trying his best to spin-doctor what he did, but he’s just making his situation worse. In the process, he’s revealing just how extensive his enabler network is–and how far they’re willing to go to protect Hillsong itself.
Posted inReligion
CARM Apologetics Zingers (Are Absolutely Awful)
Reading Time: 15 minutes But I’m attached to this CARM post we’ll cover today. It’s just such a nonstop, rollicking Gish gallop of zinger attempts. Evangelicals greatly respect zingers, perhaps because they’re so unrelentingly bad at them. So this post promises us some entertainment.
Posted inReligion
The Caste System of Calvinism: Treating People Like Things
Reading Time: 7 minutes Recently, a young and fervent Calvinist, Robert Aaron Long, decided that the best way to deal with his personal difficulties was to murder a whole bunch of innocent people. His church, Crabapple First Baptist, immediately distanced itself and is doing its level best to pretend their teachings had nothing whatsoever to do with Long’s decision or his difficulties. But I’d venture to guess that the opposite is true. Calvinism teaches adherents to treat people like things, and it does so through its central tenet.
Posted inReligion
‘Million Souls:’ Silencing Dissenters at ALL COSTS
Reading Time: 9 minutes Recently, we talked about a threat Ravi Zacharias used on one of his many victims: that if she revealed what he was doing to her, she’d be personally responsible for the ‘millions of souls’ who would inevitably deconvert upon hearing that news. That threat just electrified me. I’ve been thinking about it ever since, and about the doctrinal beliefs that inspired it.
Posted inReligion
Why Evangelicals Can’t Follow Their Own Rules About Sex
Reading Time: 11 minutes Today, let’s wonder together why evangelicals’ sex rules give believers so much trouble.
Posted inReligion
Why Christianity Is So Hard to Practice
Reading Time: 12 minutes Today, let’s explore why the practice of Christianity is so gosh-darned hard for Christians.
Posted inGeneral
The Anger of Evil in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #123, Ch. 13ish)
Reading Time: 12 minutes Hello and welcome back to our off-topic chat series, Lord Snow Presides! We return to our review of the 1986 Christian fantasy novel, This Present Darkness. In this installment, we explore a trope that this book’s author never tires of repeating: how terribly angry his tribe’s enemies always are. Today, let’s look at the role of anger in Frank […]
Posted inReligion
Questions About Heaven I Never Thought to Ask When I Was Christian
Reading Time: 9 minutes Today, let me show you some of the questions I had about Heaven. In their way, they represent bigger dealbreakers than anything I didn’t ask about Hell.