I recently received a question from a reader, and I thought I would put it to all of you to help answer it: “What resources are there for me to share with my thirteen year old daughter about coming out of the darkness of the culture you write about?… I want to give her some tools–books, blogs, anything that is age appropriate to help her.” What suggestions, including both resources and general advice, do you have for this reader?
After the website Ladies Against Feminism suggests that the son of Liza Long, who penned the viral post “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother,” is possessed by demons, I try to figure out what’s up with the competing evangelical/fundamentalist narratives of inexcusable sin and demonic possession and conclude that the country’s focus on mental illness in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting is, while overdone, nevertheless a good sign.
I’m hearing it again. Eighteen elementary children met pointless deaths today, and yet my facebook feed has lit up with cries that gun control doesn’t solve anything and assertions that the problem is spiritual darkness, not things like guns or mental illness. Eighteen families have lost their children, and yet the cries of denial are loud already. This is not okay.
When I heard about what happened in Aurora, Colorado, last night, I couldn’t help but think about how I would have responded to a tragedy like this in the past. First, I would have seen it as evidence of sin and evil in the world. I would have imagined the presence of pure evil that [...]
This week a read an article in Answers in Genesis’ Answers Magazine asserting that if you think God’s cruel for sending people to eternal torture in hell, well, you just don’t truly understand God’s goodness (yes, yes that is indeed their argument), and a post by the Slacktivist in which muses that it must be [...]
Sometimes, from time to time, a fundamentalist or evangelical child grows up to question and reject her parents’ beliefs and values. The funny thing is, this shift in belief is rarely seen as a legitimate rethinking and change of belief. Oh, no! Far from it! After all, how could a child raised on the Truth [...]
The Unforgivable Sin, by Sierra of The Pheonix and Olive Branch Sierra’s post reminded me of my own post on the subject: Salvation Anxiety and the Unforgivable Sin If you grew up in a religious family, what were you taught about the unforgivable sin? I ask because what Sierra was taught about it is very [...]
A few days ago I put up a post looking at the excuses some conservative Christian commenters on this post used to defend accused child molester Tom White. I summarized the excuses listed as follows: Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. Judge not lest you be judged. We are all capable [...]
Several commenters on recent posts have brought this topic up, so I though I’d address it. What you’re going to get here is the short and dirty version, and it’s also not completely comprehensive. You have to remember that theologians have spend almost two thousand years arguing about this and that Christianity is currently so [...]
There’s one thing that always used to bother me as an evangelical. Well, there are several things, but this one in particular. Jesus came to earth to die on the cross so that sins might be forgiven, but he also stated that there was an unforgivable sin. You could be forgiven all manners of transgression [...]
You may be wondering what in the world is going on with this whole contraception debate. While Republican leaders are trying desparately to make the issue be about religious freedom, their words and actions are betraying them. Their sudden concern about birth control also makes social conservatives’ anti-abortion rhetoric seem extremely hollow, given that widespread birth control [...]
I learned growing up that everyone has their own particular weaknesses, their own particular points of temptation. For men it might be porn, for women it might be gossip. In order to avoid your temptation you might have to avoid a particular store – like Victoria’s Secret – or a particular activity – like watching [...]
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