April Fools’ Day is a time for jokes and pranks and hoping your kids, partners or coworkers don’t take things too far. The goal is to have a few laughs while making it through the day relatively unscathed. There are…
One thing complementarian ministries share with Epstein Files
One of the most disturbing revelations of the Epstein Files is how similar the power dynamics of the men at Epstein’s Little Saint James Island were to the men in mainstream complementarian ministries. Of course, most pastors aren’t actively assaulting…
Why are evangelicals freaking out over James Talarico?
He’s being called “Pastor Pornhub” and “the living embodiment of Satan on earth” by Christians on the religious and political right. So who is this terrifying figure? Is he a Dallas megachurch pastor who had to step aside for a…
SBC influencer William Wolfe wants an America of white people
“My boys all look like me. And I want my children to grow up in a country where they’re not minorities,” William Wolfe said out loud in a video now posted online. “I want my boys to grow up in…
Are US military commanders really talking about Armageddon?
Are U.S. military commanders really telling the soldiers fighting in Iran that President Donald Trump has been “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth”? In a piece published…
‘And lead us into laughter … ’
“I’ll get real big hair, marry a man, let him lead, write a book called, ’Submissive Wife, Submissive Life,’ adopt a Southern accent out of nowhere,” comedian Taylor Tomlinson joked while imagining what it might look like for her to…
Forget empathy, the new war is on lament
Ever since Joe Rigney released his book about empathy being a sin, the TheoBros of conservative evangelicalism have been piling into his bus, demonizing empathy for those they run over as “the greatest rhetorical tool of manipulation in the 21st…
Kid Rock and evangelicals’ obsession with celebrity
In a world where everyone cycles through being an expert, the week after the Super Bowl typically turns into everyone posing as professional semioticians, offering their artistic analysis of the Super Bowl halftime show and the game. Most often, this…
Josh Howerton redefines following Jesus as becoming empire
Josh Howerton is an authoritarian theocrat who thinks his penis, pulpit and piety give him the right to rule the world. In a recent episode of his “Live Free” podcast, Howerton accuses YouTuber Rhett McLaughlin of gaslighting Christians. And in doing so,…
Alex Pretti’s murder lays bare the lie of patriarchy
Tragic acts of violence often lay bare the gap between what a system claims to be and what it actually enables. In the story of Alex Pretti’s murder, we come face to face with whether patriarchy — long sacralized as…
The TheoBros are getting the war they want in Minnesota
John Piper’s Minnesota minions are apparently rejoicing in answered prayers tonight as yet another one of their neighbors has been shot dead by ICE. Two weeks ago, Andy Naselli, pastor of Christ the King Church in Stillwater, Minn., and professor of…
BNG podcasts and social media address Twin Cities issues
Two of BNG’s podcast have released segments addressing ICE actions in Minneapolis-St. Paul and the reactions to that show of force. On “Stuck in the Middle with You,” co-hosts Mark Wingfield and Benjamin Cole seek to discover if there’s anything…