In this installment, we examine the Yoda-like superpowers of ancient widow Edith Duster. Along the way, we’ll discover a deep and cherished core of victim-blaming within the tribe. Today, Lord Snow Presides over a doctrine that accidentally reveals a deeply-unpleasant and narcissistic core running through evangelicalism.
Christian Prayer
Posted inReligion
The Big Church Meeting in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #115, Ch. 10)
Finally, we enter the big scene Peretti set up as the big conflict from the start of the novel: a church voting scene. We’ll look at how this scene might have resonated with Peretti as an author, and what it actually accomplishes in the novel’s setting. Today, Lord Snow Presides over a scene that demonstrates just how far from reality evangelical pastors’ lives truly are.
Posted inGeneral
Spiritual Warfare in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #101, Ch.6)
Chapter Six contains a pair of vignettes about demonic attacks on people–and how those attacks turn out if the target happens to be a TRUE CHRISTIAN™. This chapter also contains a very important primer on conducting spiritual warfare. If you unfortunately lack this absolutely essential skill, then hop aboard and strap in!
Posted inReligion
The Prayer Journal at the Hospital Chapel
I was thinking today about Christians who accuse ex-Christians of treating their god like an automatic teller machine (ATM). They level this accusation at us whenever we remind them that prayer doesn’t do anything in the real world. A while ago, they decided that if we mention this shortcoming, then obviously we deconverted because we didn’t get a pony upon demand. Today, let me show you how I figured out why Christians keep accusing us of this imagined shortcoming.
Posted inReligion
Everything You Ever Wondered About Spiritual Warfare
The notion of spiritual warfare isn’t new at all in fundagelicalism. In fact, it’s a go-to standby non-solution to everything that ails the Christians who buy into it. I bet you had no idea that the gaining of a happy family life hinges completely on spiritual warfare, either! Today, let me show you magical thinking at its very worst.
Posted inReligion
The UYC: How Marital Compatibility is (Mis)Defined (LSP #50)
In toxic Christianity, couples determine compatibility in a totally different way than most other folks do. Those standards simply don’t work to produce long-lasting marriages. But toxic Christians gotta toxic. I’ll show you what those standards are today, and why they prove so disastrous for Christians.
Posted inReligion
The Power of Prayer in Christian Marketing
Last time we met up, we were talking about Christian marketing and why it sucks. Christians are required to put faith in stuff that simply isn’t true–and their magical thinking carries through to their strategies around revitalizing their brand, guaranteeing failure.
Posted inReligion
God’s Club: Being Genuinely Helpful vs. Being Christianly Helpful.
If we really want to help people, then we need to do something that the Christians of God’s Club simply can’t do.
Posted inReligion
The Yoke is Not As Light As They Say, For a Reason.
Sometimes right-wing Christians can behave in ways that confuse outsiders to their culture. The National Day of Prayer (NDP) and its associated grandstanding may seem like yet another example of that confusing behavior, but it really isn’t. It fits in perfectly with their motivations and goals. Understanding the NDP can help us understand Christians themselves better–and better understand where their religion is going and why.
Posted inReligion
The Tornado Whisperer: Screw All Y’all, I’ma Get Mine
I saw a story recently about a Christian lady who thinks she prayed a tornado away from her home. I couldn’t possibly find a better example of the narcissistic right-wing Christian mentality of “screw all y’all, I’ma get mine” than this story, and today I’ll show you what I mean by that.