The Evangelical Reckoning That Will Never Happen
JANUARY 8, 2021 BY CAPTAIN CASSIDY Hi and welcome back! After Donald Trump supporters attacked the nation’s Capitol Building on Wednesday, I noticed some evangelical leaders saying there’d be some…
If Anyone Is Going to Hell, It’s the Christians
MAY 22, 2018 BY MATTHEW DISTEFANO Although I no longer engage in theological discussions on Facebook all that often, I still get into it with folks from time to time.…
2020 Election: Is It Over Yet Edition
NOVEMBER 6, 2020 BY CAPTAIN CASSIDY Hi and welcome back! As the election counting continues, our hopes rise ever so slightly that our next four years won’t feature an incompetent…
How the Satanic Panic Led Straight to QAnon
OCTOBER 28, 2020 BY CAPTAIN CASSIDY Hi and welcome back! Yesterday, we began our discussion about QAnon, that series of overwrought conspiracy theories that many evangelicals have embraced. After a…
Where White Evangelicals REALLY Lost Their Way
OCTOBER 17, 2020 BY CAPTAIN CASSIDY Hi and welcome back! I just saw this essay on Baptist News and had a good chuckle over it. See, Richard T. Hughes thinks…
Amy Barrett, a lawsuit, a victory — and a double musical treat
OCTOBER 2, 2020 BY FREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION Yes, we’ve been recently busy with Amy Coney Barrett here at the Freedom From Religion Foundation, but, no, we haven’t let her…
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…
How Gaming Griefers Reveal Broken Systems
SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 BY CAPTAIN CASSIDY Hi and welcome back! Over the years, I’ve played and administered a whole bunch of games — both in real life and online. In…
Reducing Christian Churn By Manipulating Parents
SEPTEMBER 22, 2020 BY CAPTAIN CASSIDY Hi and welcome back! The decline of Christian dominance has been one of my interests for many years. Accordingly, I’ve always kept an eye…
Church Bullies and the God Who Wasn’t There
SEPTEMBER 19, 2020 BY CAPTAIN CASSIDY Hi and welcome back! On the heels of yesterday’s discussion about two fundagelical bullies, I ran into another post about how to identify and…
Far from being anti-religious, faith and spirituality run deep in Black Lives Matter
SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 BY THE CONVERSATION By Hebah H. Farrag of University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and Ann Gleig of University of Central…
A Biblical Worldview: Toxic Christians’ Self-Serving Definition
SEPTEMBER 12, 2020 BY CAPTAIN CASSIDY Hi and welcome back! Earlier, we talked about Joe Battaglia’s book Make America Good Again. As we discovered, it’s chock-full of culture-war talking points…
The Futility of Coercing or Punishing Belief
SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 BY GENE VEITH Historically, religions have sometimes used force to compel people to accept their teachings and to punish those who did not. This has been an…
Christianese 101: ‘Conviction’
SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 BY CAPTAIN CASSIDY Hi and welcome back! For a long time now, I’ve studied Christianese. That’s the jargon that Christians use among themselves — particularly the really…
‘Christian Love’ Flows As Jen Hatmaker Divorces
SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 BY CAPTAIN CASSIDY Hi and welcome back! I know nobody’s surprised when we talk about evangelical hypocrisy. They’re soaking in it! However, today’s story might represent one…
America is functionally atheist
SEPTEMBER 9, 2020 BY FREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION By James A. Haught Some jokes reveal truths. Remember the quip that “no Christian wants to go to heaven right now”? Obviously,…
Will The Church Survive The Covid-19 Damage? No, But This Is The Time For Rebirth
SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 BY CHRISTY THOMAS I continue to ponder the long-term aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the health, and even survival, of churches. Will it survive the Covid-19…