{"id":35602,"date":"2013-06-17T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2013-06-17T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?p=35602"},"modified":"2013-06-17T11:47:46","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T17:47:46","slug":"how-to-write-a-hugely-popular-piece-for-huffington-post-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/06\/how-to-write-a-hugely-popular-piece-for-huffington-post-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Write a Hugely-Popular Piece for Huffington Post Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

For theological and religious types, Huffington Post Religion<\/a> (HuffPo) happens to be one of the more predominant avenues toward becoming involved in the online religious discussion. They typically feature big-name scholars and established bloggers, many of whom can be thought-provoking and helpful<\/a>. But no one cares about that. The real traffic goes to another type of religion piece.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve read and followed their posts over the past few years, I\u2019ve noticed a few tried and true themes and threads for writers interested in dominating the Christianity conversation traffic-wise. So for those seeking fortune and fame (okay, just fame), I thought I\u2019d offer a few tips:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Insist that \u201cEvangelicalism needs to learn\u2026\u201d <\/strong>\u2014 Point out common conservative \u201cEvangelical\u201d mistakes. Anything from politics, theology, biblical interpretation, to proper attitudes towards the ecological crisis will do. Don\u2019t worry too much about presenting the range of theological diversity, or nuanced conservative positions. That\u2019s not the point. Just feed the popular narrative that anybody adopting the moniker \u2018Evangelical\u2019 is a backwoods, obtuse, un-progressive tool with enough passion, panache, and subtly restrained disdain. You\u2019re right in the sweet spot.<\/li>\n
  2. \u201cI know because I used to be an Evangelical until\u2026\u201d \u2014<\/strong> If you can do this as an ex\/post-Evangelical, you get bonus points. Everybody expects a liberal mainliner to rail on Evangelicals, but as one newly converted from the fold carrying a message of sanity for your one-time peers, your story carries more authority. This is even more compelling if you can present a strong story of blindness,\u00a0a crisis of conscience, or broken faith that led you to a liberating realization.\u00a0Any sort of progressive coming-of-age tinge will make it that much stronger.<\/li>\n
  3. Bravely Flirt with a Heresy<\/strong> \u2014 \u201cHeresy\u201d is a\u00a0culturally sexy<\/a>\u00a0concept. Overturning stale, repressive orthodoxies, especially in the name of broader horizons, intellectual honesty, inclusiveness, and, of course, \u201ccompassion,\u201d is the BEST. (That this is mostly done in the name of some new, unnamed progressive orthodoxy is neither here nor there.) There has to be the note of bravery\u2014a willingness to risk the scorn of the conservative establishment (whose opinion you don\u2019t really care about anyway). It\u2019s a fine line to walk, but you can do it. I believe in you.<\/li>\n
  4. Call Someone a Bigot <\/strong>\u2014 Don\u2019t forget to forcefully assert that any religious conviction about moral or sexual issues stems from a fear of the Other, selfishness, and historical shortsightedness. Don\u2019t bother differentiating between a principled-yet-compassionate moral stance and malicious bigotry; implying that the two are distinguishable phenomena doesn\u2019t help the cause. Even if all it amounts to is a throwaway accusation buried in a middle paragraph that doesn\u2019t advance the argument of your article one bit, get it in there. If, by the end of the piece, you haven\u2019t labeled an enemy, you\u2019ve failed.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    For theological and religious types, Huffington Post Religion (HuffPo) happens to be one of the more predominant avenues toward becoming involved in the online religious discussion. They typically feature big-name scholars and established bloggers, many of whom can be thought-provoking and helpful. But no one cares about that. The real traffic goes to another type […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1460,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1484],"tags":[424,2230,1773],"class_list":["post-35602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-culture","category-ofthemoment","tag-evangelicalism","tag-huffington-post","tag-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Write a Hugely-Popular Piece for Huffington Post Religion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For theological and religious types, Huffington Post Religion (HuffPo) happens to be one of the more predominant avenues toward becoming involved in the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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