Reading Time: 11 minutes There’s another magic spell he wants to teach Christians to cast here, and that spell revolves around reframing unpleasant and negative ideas so that churches won’t have to change anything they’re doing with regard to all the stuff that people cite as reasons to steer clear of Christianity.
SSDD
Posted inReligion
You Lost Me’s Push for Discipling: Hold On, Y’All, He Knows Exactly What to Do.
Reading Time: 9 minutes David Kinnaman’s central idea is that The Big Problem Here is that modern churches aren’t properly discipling their youth and that if this starts happening properly, young people will stop leaving and maybe even return to the groups they’ve already left. Today I’ll teach you what this confusing term means–most of the time anyway–and why this author is totally wrong.
Posted inReligion
Preston Sprinkle still doesn’t get it
Reading Time: 10 minutes So Preston Sprinkle went into the overflowing hopper of Christians Who Think They’re Saying Something New and Exciting But Aren’t, and we all moved on. Then around Easter I caught wind of him proudly announcing that he’d written some more stuff on the subject and done a podcast or something, and I found myself groaning inwardly.
Posted inLGBTQ, Religion
Elevating the Meaningless Blather–I Mean, the Dialogue.
Reading Time: 7 minutes Christians’ bigotry has cost them countless adherents as well–adherents who take with them when they leave an inestimable amount of money, time, and support. Today I want to set our phasers to “deep-fat fry” and show you exactly why their newest tactic regarding LGBTQ outreach is nothing but a smokescreen meant to disguise how unpersuasive their essential message is.
Posted inLGBTQ, Religion
A Match Made in Hell for People to Be “Loved.”
Reading Time: 9 minutes Preston Sprinkle, in his book People to Be Loved, expresses some truly atrocious ideas. Arguably the most offensive of the lot is his suggestion that gay people should marry straight people. Today I’ll show you why he thinks that’d be a great idea, and why he’s wrong.
Posted inReligion
Through a Bubble, Darkly: 7 Things I Wish I Could Get Through To Thom Rainer
Reading Time: 10 minutes We’ve been talking lately about how, when Christians write about non-Christians, they often end up with a picture that doesn’t look terribly familiar to us–but which looks remarkably like the image of us that Christian culture paints. Today I want to dissect that picture.
Posted inReligion
Through a Bubble, Darkly: 7 Things I Wish I Could Get Through To Thom Rainer.
Reading Time: 10 minutes We’ve been talking lately about how, when Christians write about non-Christians, they often end up with a picture that doesn’t look terribly familiar to us–but which looks remarkably like the image of us that Christian culture paints. Today I want to dissect that picture.
Posted inLGBTQ, Religion
A Cold First Option for People to Be “Loved.”
Reading Time: 9 minutes We’ve been talking for a while now about right-wing Christians’ culture war against LGBTQ people, using Preston Sprinkle’s new advice book People to be Loved as a starting-off point. I’ve alluded a few times to the life script options that Dr. Sprinkle has generously allocated for gay people in order for them to be acceptable to him–er, to his god–and today I want to touch on one of them.
Posted inReligion
The SBC Still Doesn’t Get Why Nobody Likes Them Anymore.
Reading Time: 10 minutes Sometimes it’s hard to believe that a culture can be this blind to its own faults and problems, and yet here we are at another installment of “Heads in the Sand: Southern Baptist Edition.”
Posted inReligion
The SBC Still Doesn’t Get Why Nobody Likes Them Anymore
Reading Time: 9 minutes Sometimes it’s hard to believe that a culture can be this blind to its own faults and problems, and yet here we are at another installment of “Heads in the Sand: Southern Baptist Edition.”