Once upon a time, I was a conservative. The last remnants of my conservatism died on Nov. 8, 2016, when Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States of America, forever unmasking for me that whatever “conservatives”…
‘Do you think I am still a Christian?’
My work with Doubter’s Parish puts me in correspondence with large numbers of people. Many of them ask interesting questions about God, Jesus, faith, theology and church. For example, a few months ago a reader who no longer believes in…
‘Operation Reconquista’ aims to return Mainline churches to ‘orthodoxy’
Conservatives from seven Mainline Protestant denominations marked Reformation Sunday this year by publishing their own 95 theses calling for reform in their respective denominations — except for those affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA, who published 9.5 theses to…
You don’t have to demonize us just because we’ve left the faith as you believe it
One of the most dismissive and hurtful statements ex-evangelicals hear from our conservative evangelical family and friends after we deconstruct their walls is: “You must have never been saved to begin with.” Another way they say it is, “You must…
Biblical orthodoxy 2023: Sign or get ‘churched’
In Giving Glory to God in Appalachia: Worship Practices of Six Baptist Subdenominations, the late Appalachian State University professor Howard Dargan observed: One ceases to be a member of a local Primitive (Baptist) church by being dismissed by letter to…
When ‘orthodoxy’ won’t hold: The SBC and the rest of us
In a May 26 New York Times column, “The Southern Baptist Moral Meltdown,” conservative commentator David Brooks wrote: “They dedicated their lives to a gospel that says that every human being is made in the image of God. They dedicated…
Knocking down the straw man of theological liberalism
One of the growing frustrations many deconstructing Christians, ex-evangelicals, liberationist and liberal theologians share is how conservative organizations like The Gospel Coalition constantly misrepresent us through “straw man” fallacies. In the field of logic, a “straw man” is when somebody…
Faith podcasts providing downloadable fellowship and formation
It seems just about everyone is listening to podcasts these days, and on just about every subject imaginable – from sports and history to finance, politics and, yes, religion.
Honest to God
How can we talk about orthodoxy or orthopraxy when best and brightest pastors have too much integrity to lie to get the approval they need to serve?