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May 2023

May 22, 2023

How low can you go?

Once the folklore of Hell was adopted as doctrine, the folklore-doctrine of "Limbo" also became...

July 2022

July 14, 2022

When concordance-ism eats itself

Chapter and verse, buddy. Chapter. And. Verse. It doesn't get any more evangelical than that.

May 2019

May 03, 2019

LBCF, No. 234: ‘The logic of Hell’

The literal Hell of the Evangelists turns out to be the exact opposite of the...

April 2019

April 02, 2019

Hell is a slander against God, and against the victims of evil

Jesus chased the money-changers out of the Temple with a whip of cords. The way...

March 2019

March 12, 2019

Do they love you the same as me?

If God is a monster, then we are damned. And vice versa. Plus: Rich people...

December 2018

December 19, 2018

Somebody find me

A look at a new book reviewing the long, apocryphal history of Hell. Plus: Why...

December 15, 2018

Advent Calendar Day 15: Magnificat is comin’ to town

This promise of a coming Jubilee isn’t for everyone. Alongside that promise there’s also a...

April 2018

April 02, 2018

The Harrowing Of Hell, and All Its Works

What does this very strange story/folklore/doctrine of the "Harrowing of Hell" tell us that Jesus...

January 2018

January 22, 2018

The Witches of Breastwick

Some evangelical leaders seem more concerned that their favorite president used the s-word than that...

April 2017

April 19, 2017

Money, Hell, and ‘Kirk Drift’

That engagement may initially be hostile, but that hostility compels me to pay attention. It...

April 18, 2017

Captain Kirk, the Green Woman, and the Bible

She must have been one of Kirk's romantic conquests, right? If you had asked me...

August 2016

August 07, 2016

Tales from the Dark Side

The same challenge Jenkins is tackling here faces any Christian who attempts to consider what...

May 2016

May 14, 2016

The Fall of the House of Graham (ongoing)

The transition from Billy Graham to his son Franklin Graham is a microcosm of the...

February 2016

February 05, 2016

Left Behind Classic Fridays, No. 67: ‘Selective literalism’

The point of all three of Jesus' stories, of course, is that the kingdom of...

January 2016

January 26, 2016

Slaves in the hands of an angry white God

The New York Conspiracy of 1741 probably wasn't a conspiracy at all. While there's little...

December 2015

December 17, 2015

Sometimes so strange, sometimes so sweet

The resignation of Wheaton College president Philip Ryken wouldn't completely unsoil the sheets there, but...

December 08, 2015

Advent Calendar, Day Five: Magnificat Is Coming to Town

"The kids in girl and boy land," the song says, "will have a Jubilee." But...

November 2015

November 12, 2015

Why conversionist stories promote dishonesty

It's more than just the temptation to give our stories, as Burke writes, "a little...

November 11, 2015

How conversionist stories promote dishonesty

The evangelical conversion narrative encourages -- maybe even requires -- exaggeration, which is to say...

November 02, 2015

T.F.: The Logic of Hell

Accept that Hell is real and that it is infinitely more important than any earthly...

September 2015

September 22, 2015

Just watching myself in some play

A great magician reveals a trick; the end of the season and the End of...

June 2015

June 01, 2015

God is not like Ramsey Snow

For those unfamiliar with the TV show "Game of Thrones," this is a picture of...

May 2015

May 12, 2015

Smart people saying smart things (5.12)

Candida Moss on the pedagogy of Hell. Libby Anne on "Orgies, Bisexuality, James Dobson, and...

October 2014

October 30, 2014

Indiana Jones, the Antichrist, and Hell

The stories in the text provide the basis for other stories about those stories, and...

October 09, 2014

‘You will have no more mercy than I do’

It's an ambiguous statement that can be read in two opposite ways: "You will have...

June 2014

June 12, 2014

Feedly Hell

I do not believe in the existence of Hell, but I do believe in "Hell"...

June 10, 2014

Conversion to what? Conversion from what? The unanswered questions of ‘Great Commission Baptists’

"Conversionism" is one of the defining characteristics of white evangelicalism -- part of the famous...

May 2014

May 29, 2014

Anti-abortion activist says Obama’s presidential library will be just like Heaven

Erasing those women -- eliminating them from our imagining -- is probably the second-most horrifying...

April 2014

April 02, 2014

NRA: Jaime’s in Hell

We’re sad because we don’t want Jaime to be in Hell. He was a good...

February 2014

February 27, 2014

Down at the little church they all wear hats

Brewer comes through in Arizona. Texas can't find a "legitimate governmental purpose" for it's same-sex...