Let’s “read” the Cate Blanchett movie — The plot seems confusing? A famous conductor has a history of grooming and seducing young women. One kills herself. The story hits the tabloids and the conductor is ‘cancelled’. The Cate Blanchett movie TÁR, now up for a slew of Oscars, can seems a story from the #MeToo era about power and abuse. But is that true? There’s the story you see. In that story, the one visualized onscreen, Lydia Tár, a symphony conductor, has relationships with young women. One of these, with a…

An Evangelical hero in a censored scene — To grow up Evangelical Christian, you know about Jim Elliot. He’s the religious hero who was the most virtuous of all—deeply driven to obey God! That was the story the religion told, but look at the details? Here’s a scene never discussed before: that time Jim worked with syphilis patients in a Maryland psychiatric hospital. It was shocking when I first saw it.

Remembering an era-defining Bible scholar — In 2015, a startling book claimed Christianity had badly misread the Bible. Vast subplots about “gods” and spirits had somehow been overlooked? By now, Michael S. Heiser’s The Unseen Realm is a phenomenon and even a Pop Culture reference. He announces his cancer is terminal and he’s in his last days. I stop and reflect on his momentous life. He isn’t one for autobiography.

A follow-up on Liz Hunter, fake “cult survivor” — In June 2022, I saw a tabloid story about a woman who talked of growing up in a “cult.” I looked over the details, puzzled. She was just a Baptist. I wondered if I had grown up in a “cult” too — since that was my family’s religious identification. Liz Hunter had gone on to be a star of tabloid profiles and social media. I smelled a rat, and I went in for a look at her very public life.

Key figures in the religion toss off those clothes — To look over Christian history, one might think it was a practice of nudism. Many of the religion’s heroes are bizarrely unclothed. I guess it starts with Jesus, who is so often nude in the New Testament. But I’m thinking of later Christians who were famous for getting bare. 1. Sebastian He is said to have been a man in southern France, born in 255 A.D. During a time persecution, he hid being Christian…

Those Christian scriptures get a little wild — In Christian church you might get the idea that God likes everyone in formal attire, paying strict attention to “modesty.” Clothing is often policed. It’s all in weird contrast to the Bible, where unclothed figures abound, and seem celebrated. I like to call the Jesus story…the Nude Testament. 1. John’s Nude Baptism To prepare for Jesus’ arrival, the prophet John the Baptist prompts masses of people to dunk into the Jordan River. The ritual is not described, but…

In the last few days, Evangelicals have been swarming my channel, drawn by the 2021 post, “Jim Elliot’s Last Journal Entry” in which I’d traced how the religion’s #1 saintly hero had died in despair nursing some overwhelming sex problem. Evangelicals found the post this week, many setting to work…

I get around — Back in 2019 I set out to critique systems and disturb power structures from right here on Medium. I don’t start a post unless I feel sure it’ll horrify somebody. I look around and find I’m linked in Wikipedia articles and around social media, newspapers, magazines, etc. Here’s ten posts that went places. 1. “Divorcing Charles Stanley” (2020) Back in 2020, I was a boy with a dream! I would dive into the sewer of Evangelical history. …