Are you a parent? If you are, then I’d like you to try a thought experiment. Imagine that your 4-year-old child struts up to you and proudly hands you a colorful drawing of, well…you’re not entirely sure WHAT it is. Then she tells you that it’s a drawing of her and you, neither of whom are discernible to you in the scribbled mess on the paper. So you respond to her thusly: “This looks nothing at all like either one… Read more
June 18, 2020
Dear Preacher, It Isn’t Your Fault (But It Is Still Your Responsibility)
June 18, 2020 By Neil Carter
0 Comments
I’d like to say a few things to those entrusted with leading evangelical Christian communities through this racially charged climate. I once considered myself one of those people but, as you can tell from the name of my blog, I changed my mind. I would argue that leaving the fold does not disqualify me from this discussion. On the contrary, the fact that I myself was once a committed insider–a leader, even–but later exited the faith should make my input… Read more
June 14, 2020
Episode 30: Screen Doors and Porch Swings
June 14, 2020 By Lori Arnold
0 Comments
When I first came out as an atheist online, it was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. I still remember how my heart pounded, how I kept the post in my drafts folder for days, trying to decide if I should publish or not. How I asked my then-husband repeatedly if he was okay with me outing us. How I worried about all the people who would be upset, about all the doors that would slam in my… Read more
May 10, 2020
The Culture Wars Have Jumped the Shark
May 10, 2020 By Neil Carter
0 Comments
When I was in college and seminary, my professors were always sounding the alarm over the postmodern condition, warning us that the loss of a central guiding “worldview” in America would produce culture wars in which every group and cultural identity would spar with each other, fighting for greater control of the public sphere. Then would come, I suppose, the collapse of “western” civilization and maybe even of democracy itself. They were always harping on “the loss of truth,” by… Read more
April 9, 2020
How ‘Be Not Afraid’ Endangers Us All
April 9, 2020 By Neil Carter
0 Comments
I think I’ve finally put my finger on what’s beneath my frustration with my fellow Southerners during this global pandemic—I mean besides the mortal peril into which their continued science denialism is putting us all, both in the short term (see COVID-19) and in the long (see climate change). I was already exasperated with their undying devotion to Donald Trump, a man whom they they despised right up until the moment he became the official nominee for God’s Own Party…. Read more
March 5, 2020
The Coronavirus and a Better Gospel
March 5, 2020 By Neil Carter
0 Comments
As you may already know, last night President Trump phoned in an interview to Hannity and brazenly disagreed with the World Health Organization about the fatality rate of the latest global health threat, the COVID-19 virus. Viewing the appearance of the Coronavirus as more of a public relations issue than as a matter of public health, Trump takes personally any negative talk about American preparedness for dealing with the current spread of the disease. You can look at the numbers yourself. As of… Read more
February 28, 2020
Movements Will Chew You Up and Spit You Out
February 28, 2020 By Neil Carter
0 Comments
While finally cleaning out a room that I swore three years ago would become a study, I happened upon a booklet from my house church days entitled How to Have a Brothers’ Meeting. It’s just a photocopied transcript of a series of talks given by our group’s founder, Gene Edwards, addressing a handful of internal issues that tend to develop in a group like ours. The Lost Years In retrospect, it’s odd that I’ve never written about my involvement in… Read more
February 11, 2020
Why Rhett and Link Broke Up with Jesus
February 11, 2020 By Neil Carter
0 Comments
If you’re younger than 30, you likely have a list of favorite YouTube channels that you follow. Chances are also good that one of them is Good Mythical Morning featuring Link Neal and Rhett McLaughlin. I’ll confess I haven’t watched a ton of their stuff, but that’s mostly because I don’t watch much YouTube at all. Watching people eat bugs and murderously hot peppers isn’t really my thing, but it’s a different story for my kids. As it is also, evidently,… Read more
February 7, 2020
Episode 29: What Atheists Wish Christians Knew About Them
February 7, 2020 By Neil Carter
0 Comments
I kept my deconversion a secret for nearly four years, but after being “outed” against my will I decided to go ahead and own it. Soon after, I began thinking about starting a blog to unpack my thoughts about faith and skepticism out loud for the benefit of others, and that’s when I read on the Friendly Atheist that people were organizing an Interview an Atheist at Church Day. I wanted in. [ iTunes | spreaker | youtube | pdf ]… Read more
February 2, 2020
Groundhog Day According to Rita
February 2, 2020 By Neil Carter
0 Comments
Groundhog Day has become like a personal religious holiday for me. Around this time every year, I break out my well-worn copy of the Bill Murray classic by the same name and watch it again to relive my most consistent fantasy: Going back in time to undo the mistakes of the past and learn from them, at last. If only real life were so generous. I’ve already written about how this movie takes a Buddhist perspective on life and weaves… Read more
get the latest from
Godless in Dixie
Sign up for our newsletter
Browse Our Archives
TRENDING AT PATHEOS Nonreligious
