The first time I saw pornography was at a public school playground during summer break when I was 8. I had ridden my bike over to the school to play, when a couple of teenage boys called me over and…
Why conservative content dominates online searches for Bible study helps
Imagine you’re an adult Bible study teacher in a local church, a layperson without access to personal theological library. Imagine it’s a Saturday afternoon and you’re working on a lesson and need help, so you turn to the largest library…
Deconstruction is not a disease, and trying harder is not the cure
What do a broken heart, a brain, a serpent and a thumbs-up emoji have in common? Any guesses? No? Good. Because these images are not the set up for a bad joke. They’re the artwork for a bad article. In…
Is the future of evangelicalism with the Christianity Today ‘elite’ or with the firebrand neo-Calvinists?
Mark Galli is best known in the United States as the former editor in chief of Christianity Today who took on Donald Trump as being morally unfit for the presidency. Late last week, he lit another fire, this time not…
It’s an easy dismissal of an idea you disagree with, but what does it actually mean for something to be ‘antithetical to the gospel’?
The phrase “antithetical to the gospel” has become a favorite way to shut down ideas with which Christians disagree. Don’t like someone else’s theology or politics or social views? Just declare those views “antithetical to the gospel,” and that’s that….
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…
Beware the Anti-Anti-Racist Evangelical Complex
Since publication of their new book addressing a Christian view on reparations for descendants of formerly enslaved Americans, Gregory Thompson and Duke Kwon have been met with harsh criticism by the “Anti-Anti-Racist Evangelical Complex.” That’s the best name I can…
Where’s the line between finding inspiration in another pastor’s sermon and plagiarizing it?
“Borrowing” someone else’s sermon is one of the top four ways pastors get fired from churches, according to Thom Rainer, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s publishing arm and a noted interpreter of modern Christianity. Rainer made that statement…
American Christianity in China also imports gender bias and Calvinism
Imagine if America’s coalition of conspiracy theorist, cowboy Christianity had colonized its way into the world of international politics and sexual abuse cover-ups under the guise of spreading the gospel. Research scholar Mary Li Ma believes this isn’t an imaginary scenario,…