Honest to God https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/ Theology isn't science; it's art. Fri, 06 Oct 2023 17:10:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 When Opinions Are Facts: the Dumbing Down of American Christianity https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2023/03/when-opinions-are-facts-the-dumbing-down-of-american-christianity/ https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2023/03/when-opinions-are-facts-the-dumbing-down-of-american-christianity/#respond Sun, 26 Mar 2023 20:04:18 +0000 https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/?p=5883 I was seventeen in 1988, and Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ had just landed in theaters. I had just started getting into his filmography with Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and The King of Comedy. I couldn’t wait to see Willem Defoe’s Jesus and David Bowie’s Pontius Pilate.  When I got to the movie theater […]

The post When Opinions Are Facts: the Dumbing Down of American Christianity appeared first on Honest to God.

]]> https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2023/03/when-opinions-are-facts-the-dumbing-down-of-american-christianity/feed/ 0 Is Christianity Delivering on Its Promise to Change People?  https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2023/03/is-christianity-delivering-on-its-promise-to-change-people/ https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2023/03/is-christianity-delivering-on-its-promise-to-change-people/#respond Mon, 20 Mar 2023 16:28:58 +0000 https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/?p=5862 For years I’ve convinced myself that I based my faith on a dogged pursuit of truth. “If I’m wrong about this,” I’d tell myself, “I want to know. So I’ll follow the truth until my beliefs align with reality. If that means letting go of Christianity, so be it.” Now, I’m not so confident that […]

The post Is Christianity Delivering on Its Promise to Change People?  appeared first on Honest to God.

]]> https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2023/03/is-christianity-delivering-on-its-promise-to-change-people/feed/ 0 Rethinking Hell: a Beginner’s Guide to Conditionalism and Annihilationism https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2022/03/rethinking-hell-a-beginners-guide-to-conditionalism-and-annihilationism/ Fri, 18 Mar 2022 15:40:00 +0000 https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/?p=5855 Several years ago, I started publicly deconstructing the topic of hell and received the most vehement pushback. “Good Christian people” sent me death threats (the only issue I’ve received such threats about). Others attacked my character for even bothering to suggest that eternal conscience torture wasn’t real. I brought up the topic again this last […]

The post Rethinking Hell: a Beginner’s Guide to Conditionalism and Annihilationism appeared first on Honest to God.

]]> The Absolute Monstrous Absurdity of Believing in Hell https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2022/03/the-absolute-monstrous-absurdity-of-believing-in-hell/ Sun, 13 Mar 2022 21:53:09 +0000 https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/?p=5840 I’ve written about my philosophical and Scriptural problems with the idea of hell in the past, particularly eternal conscious torment (the idea that God will torment bad people throughout eternity). In fact, the posts cost me a potential job with a local church. I may write again about the origins and wrong-headed Scriptural interpretations that […]

The post The Absolute Monstrous Absurdity of Believing in Hell appeared first on Honest to God.

]]> The Bible Passage That Helped Turn Me into a Flaming Liberal https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2022/03/the-bible-passage-that-helped-turn-me-into-a-flaming-liberal/ Sun, 06 Mar 2022 22:53:24 +0000 https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/?p=5826 I didn’t become a Christian until I was in my early twenties. Yet, decades later, I often wonder if I could be persuaded to care about Jesus in the current cultural climate. American Christian culture has done its best to diminish the flames of faith in me. If I was on the outside looking in […]

The post The Bible Passage That Helped Turn Me into a Flaming Liberal appeared first on Honest to God.

]]> How Dungeons & Dragons Informed My Christian Theology https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2021/05/how-dungeons-dragons-informed-my-christian-theology/ Mon, 31 May 2021 21:56:52 +0000 https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/?p=5813 I fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons as a jr. high kid in the 80s. I spent hours and hours reading manuals, crafting dungeons, and playing games with my friends. I didn’t grow up as a Christian, but I was well aware of the hand wringing in evangelical circles. I had some friends who […]

The post How Dungeons & Dragons Informed My Christian Theology appeared first on Honest to God.

]]> Why American Evangelicalism Was QAnon’s Perfect Breeding Ground https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2021/04/why-american-evangelicalism-is-qanons-perfect-breeding-ground/ Wed, 07 Apr 2021 23:36:37 +0000 https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/?p=5788 My wife and I just finished watching Q: Into the Storm, which is a bizarro thrill ride into all the strange characters at the heart of the QAnon movement. As we watched the six episodes, I thought of all the people I know who have been sucked in by this nonsense. Some of them are […]

The post Why American Evangelicalism Was QAnon’s Perfect Breeding Ground appeared first on Honest to God.

]]> No. You’re Not Getting “Canceled” for Being a Conservative https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2021/02/cancel-culture/ Fri, 12 Feb 2021 22:06:57 +0000 https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/?p=5771   Disney announced the firing of actress Gina Carano over an Instagram post the company called “abhorrent.” The post ended up being the straw that broke the camel’s back and read, “Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of […]

The post No. You’re Not Getting “Canceled” for Being a Conservative appeared first on Honest to God.

]]> What’s the Appropriate Christian Response to Your Racist Uncle? https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2020/10/whats-the-appropriate-christian-response-to-your-racist-uncle/ Mon, 26 Oct 2020 23:11:08 +0000 https://admin.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/?p=5710 It’s not an easy time to be a reasonable person in America. The tension and frustration are so thick that you could spread it on toast, and it feels like ordinary interactions could erupt into violence at any moment. In the midst of this pressure, there’s a lot of discussion about what Christians should be […]

The post What’s the Appropriate Christian Response to Your Racist Uncle? appeared first on Honest to God.

]]> Judging Others Isn’t Wrong. It’s Required. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/2020/10/judging-others-isnt-wrong-its-required/ Sat, 17 Oct 2020 19:42:32 +0000 https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jaysondbradley/?p=5692   Christian historians will be studying evangelical support for Trump for hundreds of years. How did the American church get to the place where they were willing to align with someone of such low moral and ethical character? When you point out the terrible things Trump says and does, Christian supporters say things like, “I’m […]

The post Judging Others Isn’t Wrong. It’s Required. appeared first on Honest to God.

]]>