The Christian Skeptic

American Christians get a D- in Bible reading. According to the Barna Group , only 61% of practicing Christians have read the whole thing. It's not completely their fault. Few churches teach every book in the Bible, especially those from the Old Testament. Jeremiah is long, Leviticus is boring, Ezekiel is hard to understand, and Haggai is hard to pronounce (it's hag-GUY, if you're wondering).  Many churches and even entire denominations treat the Old Testament as just that: old. It's the first draft, the demo, the beta release of Christianity. And now that we have the New Testament, everything that came before is obsolete and unnecessary for faith. Unless it's useful in condemning the culture. Genesis 1 is used to condemn evolution, Exodus 21 is used to condemn abortion, and Leviticus 18 is used to condemn homosexuality. For people who don't like reading the Old Testament, they're quite adept at quoting it when it suits them. But they d

Never tell an evangelical they're unloving, especially towards gay people. The bleeding heart pageantry that follows will make you think you accused them of punching a kitten. They're not mean or bigoted or judgmental. They just care about people in this life and  the next. Sure, you could love somebody today by giving them food, clothing, and comfort, or you could save their precious soul from an eternity of destruction. Jesus' miracles of healing the blind and the sick do seem a bit paltry in comparison. All that matters is helping people follow the one, true savior. And all his rules. Unlike the original two-word invitation, "follow me", evangelicals invite you to follow Jesus so long as you're not gay or transgender or having sex before marriage or anything else they call "sin" but don't practice themselves (for the record, yes, they do recognize that gossip is also sinful, but they're a little fuzzy on the line between living