Report: Trump Mocks Christians, But Admires Pastors Who Con The Gullible

SEPTEMBER 29, 2020 BY MICHAEL STONE “They’re All Hustlers”: Trump mocks Christians for being superstitious and ignorant, but admires the Christian leaders who con the gullible rubes. According to a new report from The Atlantic, Trump often demonstrates contempt for Christians behind closed doors, mocking their rituals and silly superstition, while admiring the Christian leaders who […]

The Good, The Bad, and the Nuanced: Why Representation Is Not Enough

 SEPTEMBER 27, 2020 BY M. L. CLARK Let’s begin with a story. Recently, I’ve been struggling to articulate some of the problems with left-leaning North American rhetoric — a side of the political equation I favour, but with deep caveats about some of its historiography and targets. This week, on my Patreon, I posted a nine-month follow-up to […]

Such A Small Thing Made An Atheist?

 SEPTEMBER 27, 2020 BY J. H. MCKENNA, PH.D. Fifty years ago Becky pondered a preacher’s boasts about the ‘mercy’ of God.  The following week Becky sat under a gnarled and unwedgeable oak and thought about ‘mercy’ some more. After bit of cogitation, she stood up an atheist. Her reasons? To say that God has ‘mercy’ on humanity can […]

The Lack of Opposite-Gender Friendships Among Evangelicals is Itself a Problem

BY BETH STONEBURNER SEPTEMBER 26, 2020 Christian-turned-atheist Patheos blogger Libby Anne wrote an eye-opening blog post this week on why evangelicals don’t do opposite-sex friendships. The inspiration came from the following tweet: Says Libby Anne: In evangelical churches, any cross-gender relationship is always, always, always portrayed as dangerous. The moment a teenage girl and boy get friendly, adults in the congregation start […]

Icelandic Church Under Fire for Depicting Jesus With Beard and Breasts

BY VAL WILDE  SEPTEMBER 26, 2020 An advertisement encouraging children to attend Sunday school classes hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland has stirred up controversy following its social media release earlier this month. The ad, brightly colored and cheerful, depicts a smiling cartoon Christ leaping amid the greenery outside a church populated by grinning multiracial […]

First ever cult Supreme Court Justice nominated by Trump

 SEPTEMBER 27, 2020 BY OPHELIA BENSON TRUMP chose to nominate a fanatical Catholic – Amy Coney Barrett, above –  to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the US Supreme Court. Of course he did, despite being perhaps the least religious president we’d ever had. Before you get excited about Donald Trump the freethinker, remember that he thinks of himself as […]

Let’s Outgrow Fairy Tales

OCTOBER 28, 2019 BY JAMES A. HAUGHT By James A. Haught The supernatural spectrum is immense: Gods, goddesses, devils, demons, angels, heavens, hells, purgatories, limbos, miracles, prophecies, visions, auras, saviors, saints, virgin births, immaculate conceptions, resurrections, bodily ascensions, faith-healings, salvation, redemption, messages from the dead, voices from Atlantis, omens, clairvoyance, spirit-signals, spirit-possession, exorcisms, divine visitations, incarnations, […]

Unhealthy Idolatries of Jesus & Mary

 OCTOBER 14, 2019 BY FELLOW DYING INMATE Unhealthy Christology!—Our imagined Jesus and Mary are a far cry from the historical truth of starving Galilean peasants. Is your imagined Jesus unhealthy? How do you picture the historical Jesus, physically speaking? Imagine Jesus walking about in first century Galilee. How does he appear? Did being God’s only begotten […]

Pastor Robert Jeffress: ‘To Resist Law Enforcement Is To Resist God’

 SEPTEMBER 26, 2020 BY MICHAEL STONE American Taliban: Fox News contributor Pastor Robert Jeffress uses the Bible to justify the claim that police “are ministers of God sent to punish evildoers.” Jeffress, appearing on Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs Tonight, used the Bible to defend the police, at one point declaring: Law enforcement officers are ministers of […]

What if a Saint Was Gay?

 OCTOBER 14, 2019 BY JENNIFER FITZ As I write, the usual suspects are circulating conjecture about a newly-canonized saint: Maybe this person was gay! Well, maybe so, maybe not — as we could safely say about every single person in the universe.  What does that have to do with us? #1 Get Your Mind Out of the […]

AG William Barr: “Militant Secularists” Don’t Understand Church/State Separation

BY BETH STONEBURNER  SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 Attorney General William Barr spoke at the (virtual) National Catholic Prayer Breakfast yesterday and was awarded the “Christifideles Laici Award” for — and I’m not making this up — his Christ-like behavior. He used his acceptance speech, naturally, to further trash the concept of church/state separation. That crucial link between religion […]

Christian Games, Incomplete Participation, and Suspension of Disbelief

SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 BY CAPTAIN CASSIDY Hi and welcome back! Yesterday, we talked about authoritarian Christians in terms of roleplaying games. And now, I want to show you where the metaphor leads: suspension of disbelief. Authoritarians require complete participation in their Happy Pretendy Fun Time Games. Otherwise, they lose suspension of disbelief and everything goes higgledy-piggledy. Today, let me show you why […]

Christian Preacher: If You Have Faith, You Can See Dead People Come Back to Life

BY HEMANT MEHTA  SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 Christian preacher Andrew Wommack has said repeatedly in the past that anyone with faith can raise people from the dead. It even happened to his son and his wife and two babies. On Tuesday, he criticized everyone who thinks he’s making it up, saying they’re just not faithful enough. … If you got born again, your faith […]

Baptist Preacher Caught Yelling “White Power!” After Speaking at Trump Rally

BY HEMANT MEHTA  SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 On Saturday, in North Carolina, preacher Jesse Hursey spoke (in his personal capacity) during an Alamance County Trump rally. Speaking like any politician would, he told the crowd he was a Christian first and Republican second, to rousing applause, before encouraging the “silent majority” to vote for Donald Trump. Later that day, […]

And Now, Book Burning

 SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 BY GENE VEITH Book burning is the iconic manifestation of totalitarianism, thought control, and the suppression of freedom.  And now cancel culture has come to point of burning books. Trans Rights Activists have called for the burning of books by J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series.  Newsweek reports that  “J.K. Rowling Book Burning Videos Are […]