American Jesus Madness came a little too close for comfort in the 1st round with Loving Children needing a last minute rally to beat Loving Guns. On the other hand, Thoughts & Prayers silenced Actually Doing Something by a 60% margin, so real life still held some sway in the 1st Round. And on the other other hand, Evangelical Lady Bloggers completely destroyed Evangelical Authorities, both in that matchup and with Jen Hatmaker’s demolishing (pun very much intended) of Lifeway... Read more

It’s time once again to crown a new champion of American Christianity. As always, we’ve got some really tough 1st round matchups. And as always, who moves on is totally up to you, so vote and vote often!! For reals. American Jesus Madness is just like a Russian presidential election. Voting is unlimited!! Vote for your favorite, vote for your least favorite, vote for the thing you’re passionate about, or vote for the thing you can’t believe is a real... Read more

If you’re new to American Jesus Madness, you might find yourself wondering, “What sort of insane dystopian tournament I have wandered into?” But fear not! Well, maybe fear a little. I mean, the tournament may be imaginary, but the combatants are sadly all too real. Anywho, for newcomers and veterans alike, I like to offer a breakdown of the bracket every year to explain what’s going on in each matchup so you have a better idea on what you’re voting... Read more

Here it is!! The official 2018 American Jesus Madness bracket. I would say it’s been yet another wild and crazy year in American Christianity, but that would make it sound like business as usual and as we all know all too well, life has been anything but usual since Donald Trump took office. Which is why American Jesus Madness may be more important then ever. We all need a chance to blow off some steam, release the pressure valve of... Read more

It’s that magical time of the year again. The snow is melting, spring is just around the corner, and children everywhere are rejoicing as the greatest imaginary tournament in the history of American Christianity is ready to begin. That’s right, it’s time for American Jesus Madness 2018. The annual royal rumble of all things American Christianity where 64 combatants enter, but only 1 will walk away with the title of champion of American Christianity. Last year, Jesus the Refugee duked... Read more

(Credit: Florida Memory, Flickr Creative Commons) On a June evening just before my junior year in high school, I joined some 45,000 people on the banks of the Cumberland River in Nashville, TN to hear Billy Graham preach. As a would-be preacher myself, he was my hero. He was a Baptist and I was a Nazarene and Baptists and Nazarenes don’t always agree on theology, but the one thing we could agree on was the fact that Billy Graham was... Read more

(Source: Twitter) Yesterday, 17 children were gunned downed in their school. It was the 18th school shooting in the United States in the last 45 days.* And while the vast majority of Americans are horrified, appalled, and outraged, demanding some sort of action, any action be taken to end these sorts of unspeakable tragedies, Republican leadership in Congress just shrugs while their benefactors at the NRA and its foot soldiers go about peddling their propaganda about the supposed ineffectiveness of... Read more

(Source: Facebook) It’s not exactly news that Trump-loving Christians contort themselves in all sorts of ways to justify supporting a man who is so objectively anti-Christ in everything he says and does. And yet those contortions never cease to amaze. The latest installment of the seemingly never-ending and appalling series of Christian justifications for Donald Trump comes courtesy of one of his favorite preachers, Robert Jeffress. In a recent op-ed for Religion News Service, Jeffress tried to explain why the... Read more

(Credit: Wikipedia) If you don’t get goosebumps listening to the end of Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have A Dream speech, you need to check your pulse. Or maybe your soul. It’s a riveting message of hope and aspiration for a future free from the racial divide that plagued America in the middle of the 20th century and continues to plague us today. As a naive, middle-class white kid in the 90s, I thought America was well on its way... Read more

(Credit: Wikipedia) The President of the United States is an unapologetic racist. He’s certainly not the first racist President and, sadly, probably won’t be the last. But unlike Presidents in recent memory who, generally speaking, at least publicly made an effort to not appear racist by saying or doing objectively racist things, Donald Trump has made racism the foundation of his presidency ever since the day he first rode down that tacky golden elevator in Trump Tower to announce he... Read more