Reading Time: 8 minutes We’re going to be reviewing the movie I’m Not Ashamed shortly, so this is our customary pre-review post setting up the movie and outlining some of its major ideas (and problems). And man oh man, are there ever problems here.
testimony
Posted inReligion
The Cult of Before Stories: Desperate for Relevance.
Reading Time: 8 minutes Bill Schnoebelen is one such storyteller. Once a popular figure in fundagelical Christianity, his narrative long ago lost its cachet. He’s had to reinvent himself–but is finding that once someone’s joined the Cult of Before Stories, that’s really hard to do.
Posted inGaming
Dark Dungeons: Pre-Mega-Live-Review!
Reading Time: 8 minutes In a few hours I’m firing up Dark Dungeons. Before I do that, I make a few notes about the movie to start us off–where I’m coming from as I watch it, and why I feel so strongly about the game it demonizes.
Posted inReligion
When Christian “Experts” Aren’t Really Expert: Atheism Edition.
Reading Time: 10 minutes Recently, I made an offhand comment about a blog post by a Christian minister named Joe McKeever. After dismissing his arrogant, unsupported claims in the main, I joked (a little) about the idea of going over his post in more detail later. The more I thought about it, the more I thought such a treatment might not be a bad idea. It’s kind of old, but I think it covers all the Bingo spots on the card, so to speak. Plus, I think it’s hilarious.
Posted inReligion
How Lying for Jesus Became So Common.
Reading Time: 10 minutes Last time we talked, I mentioned three examples of blatantly obvious lies told by Christians who clearly expected everyone to nod, smile, and let them get away with their dishonesty. These lies weren’t accidents or simple errors in judgment. They (and all the ones like them) happened because right-wing Christian culture has become a mixing-bowl full of noxious elements that have combined to produce a mindset that finds dishonesty acceptable and even laudable. Today we’ll go over what some of those elements are and how they fit into what we’re seeing in the news lately.
Posted inReligion
We Welcome Ben Carson to the Cult of “Before” Stories.
Reading Time: 10 minutes A long time ago, I wrote a post called “A Cult of “Before” Stories” in which I described what it was like as a young Christian to realize that my then-husband had constructed a testimony full of lies–and how I realized that pretty much all of the really dramatic testimonies I heard from other Christians were largely untrue as well. On the heels of realizing that these stories were untrue, I also began to perceive the unbelievably rich rewards Christians get for concocting and sharing these dramatic testimonies. I began to see my tribe as one that was simply obsessed with these “before” stories–thus, my name for the mindset.
Posted inReligion
The Cult of Before Stories: Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth.
Reading Time: 12 minutes I wish it could shock me anymore, seeing a family ripped apart by religion. It happens constantly in this modern age–and will probably get worse, really. But this story touched me particularly today because it hit a few all-too-familiar notes in that discordant jangle that is the Cult of Before Stories.
Posted inLGBTQ News, Religion
The Cult of Before Stories: Heather Barwick, Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth
Reading Time: 14 minutes I wish it could shock me anymore, seeing a family ripped apart by religion. It happens constantly in this modern age–and will probably get worse, really. But this story touched me particularly today because it hit a few all-too-familiar notes in that discordant jangle that is the Cult of Before Stories.
Posted inReligion
The Handbook: Examining the Evidence
Reading Time: 10 minutes I wasn’t stupid, willfully-ignorant, or mentally will when I made the decision to become a fundamentalist, and I really don’t like it when someone implies that about anyone. I thought the religion had evidence supporting its claims. On that count I was wrong, and here’s the list of what I was wrong about.
Posted inReligion
Alex Malarkey and a Shocking Twist in the Old Story of Lying for Jesus.
Reading Time: 10 minutes You’ve probably heard of that genre of books called heavenly tourism. In these books, a Christian discusses a Near-Death Experience (NDE) they had where they think they visited an afterlife that looks remarkably like the Christian Heaven. They were allowed to return (or requested to do so) and now they feel that their life’s mission is to tell as many people as they can about their experience. Christians love these books. But now one of these heavenly tourists has recanted his story. Here’s how he did it, and why, and what it means for Christianity.