The Christian Skeptic

Our persecution complex is turning into professional martyrdom.

A few years ago, HGTV ended their plans to produce a show with two Christian brothers. David and Jason Benham had run a successful real estate company for over ten years and were set host their first show, "Flip It Foward", in the fall.

But in the spring, Right Wing Watch reported that David had led a prayer rally outside of the Democratic National Convention years earlier where he condemned the gay agenda and other "demonic ideologies". HGTV responded the next day:

HGTV has decided not to move forward with the Benham Brothers' series. Posted by HGTV on Wednesday, May 7, 2014
As the persecution alarm sounded, evangelicals made an impressive show of solidarity. Faith Driven Consumer launched a #FlipThisDecision petition that garnered over 20,000 signatures. Ralph Reed hashtagged the decision #AntiChristianBigotry, and Laura Ingraham called the decision-makers "Stalinists".
The Benhams have…

Thanks to an ancient, shared history.

I used to laugh at Christians who supported same-sex relationships. The Bible was so clear it was inexplicable how anyone could claim to be a Christian and not confess that homosexuality was a sin.

Arguments in favor of it usually amounted to "a loving God would never condemn any form of love" or "the Old Testament is full of outdated xenophobia and racism". In other words, Christians who endorsed gay marriage simply dismissed Scripture to make their case. And being a fairly reasonable person, I wasn't about to accept such an irresponsible hermeneutic.

I wanted someone to prove to me, biblically, that homosexuality wasn't a sin. And for years, I was unconvinced because even the biblical arguments were terrible. Matthew Vines, an outspoken gay Christian, made a noble attempt with his book God and the Gay Christian, but his insistence that monogamous gay relationships were not within the Bible's purview felt weak and …

And every confessing Christian should support it.
When Disney announced that their live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast would feature the first "exclusively gay moment" in one of their pictures, the flood of evangelical opposition came as expected.
Franklin Graham said that he hoped Christians everywhere would "say no to Disney". Al Mohler warned that entertainment has the power to "reach our hearts". And Southern Baptist professor Denny Burk lamented, "Disney has put me and many other parents like me in the position of having to explain to very small children why this movie is bad for them."
The liberal rejoinder was no less surprising. Jonathan Merritt, a senior columnist for Religion News Service, responded with a piece entitled "Flaming Hypocrisy in Evangelical Christian Boycott". In less than 700 words, Merritt takes evangelicals to task for boycotting Disney's gay promotion while supporting a sexually-exploitative presi…

Saying his name is not the gospel.

Christians host weird parties. It's bad enough we produce "sacred" alternatives to culture so we never have to interact with real people, but the church's idea of community outreach is patronizing.

As Sundays shifted from mighty fortresses to football, Christians knew that fire and brimstone was no longer enough to fill the pews. They had to get creative. So they devised sinister game nights and movie nights under the pretense of love and compassion. Invite your friends, they said. They'll have fun, they said.

It's a trap.

A classic bait-and-switch. The community outreach events of the 80's and 90's were sermons in baseball caps. We lured our victims inside our walls with free food and wouldn't let them leave until they sat through a message that usually had more to do with sex, drugs, and alcohol than Jesus.

Culture is no dummy and got wise to our ploys pretty quick, so it was back to the old drawing board for m…