Why do so many evangelical Christians gravitate toward multi-level marketing schemes? Expatriates from the faith know exactly why: because they’ve been training for them their whole lives. The evangelical Christian faith is itself a multi-level marketing scheme, and evangelism is its sales process. Of course, the stated goal of any MLM is the selling of its products—in this case, salvation—but those at the top of every pyramid know the secret: It’s never about the product itself; it’s always about bringing… Read more
February 20, 2021
Why Evangelical Christians Love Multi-Level Marketing So Much
February 20, 2021 By Neil Carter
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February 2, 2021
What Kind of Parent Would Your Faith Make?
February 2, 2021 By Neil Carter
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We are not fallen angels but emerging beings. –Bishop Spong I’ve been trying for a while to boil down my chief objections to the faith of my youth, and I think I’ve settled on the metaphor that best sums it up. I’ve decided my greatest problem with the Christian faith isn’t its avoidance of responsibility for anything that goes wrong in the world, like, ever. It isn’t the martyrdom complex they can’t seem to shake no matter how much power… Read more
December 13, 2020
Trump Laid Bare the Gullibility of the Church
December 13, 2020 By Neil Carter
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Around the time that American conservatives lurched overnight from hating Donald Trump to loving him, someone wrote that he wasn’t so much an anomaly as he was a revelation. As difficult as it was to accept, it turns out that plenty of people were happy to install the billionaire playboy as the 45th President of the United States. In fact, many of them are still trying to make it happen again even after he lost this year’s election by more than… Read more
September 21, 2020
God Is Not to Blame for This
September 21, 2020 By Neil Carter
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A younger friend recently told me she knows a number of guy friends who don’t care much for female artists. “Any female artists?” I asked her. “Any,” she replied, as if there’s something fundamental to being female that makes one less capable of making good art. I found this difficult to absorb. How could anyone believe that? Thinking back through the list of those authors, singers, speakers, and general opinion sharers from whom I’ve personally benefited over the years while… Read more
August 7, 2020
C.S. Lewis and the Art of Holy Deception
August 7, 2020 By Neil Carter
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It only recently occurred to me that I am now older than C.S. Lewis was when he first delivered the Broadcast Talks for BBC Radio upon which his later book Mere Christianity was based. Like him, I have been a teacher for decades; but unlike him, I have also spent decades parenting several children and stepchildren. Beyond that, I have also studied theology in a formal setting, something Lewis humblebragged that he had never done. Does it strike you as… Read more
July 23, 2020
C.S. Lewis and the Argument from Wishing
July 23, 2020 By Neil Carter
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Yesterday I posted the first of what I plan to become a series of chapter reviews of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I know I’m late to this game—others have already dissected this work many times over—but I’ve never written out my own thoughts for those who would want to know them. It’s long overdue. In the first chapter, Lewis began his argument for the rationality of the Christian faith by submitting that all people possess a sense of right… Read more
July 22, 2020
C.S. Lewis and the Law of Nature
July 22, 2020 By Neil Carter
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For years now, I’ve been putting off writing a review of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, but the time has finally come for me to take the plunge. One of my daughters asked for my thoughts about the book recently, and given that unpacking my deconversion for my girls was the reason I started blogging in the first place, I’m going to take my time and do this thoroughly. I’m no master debater, but I invested way too much time… Read more
July 4, 2020
The Worst Parent Ever
July 4, 2020 By Neil Carter
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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
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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
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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
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