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Young Male Congregants Sue Televangelist Eddie Long, Alleging Sexual Coercion

By Sarah Posner

…d unity in those relationships was what drew her into Paulk’s multi-racial Atlanta megachurch, but that mirage unraveled in the 1990s, when six women in the church accused him of sexual abuse. As I wrote in God’s Profits, they accused him: of manipulating them into sex based on his theory of a “kingdom relationship:” sex with the bishop (and in some cases members of his family or other pastors) was what God wanted for his kingdom. . . . Paulk refu…

Praying to the Zombie Jesus: The Spirituality of Horror

By W. Scott Poole

…tch: survivors of a zombie apocalypse have escaped from an undead-infested Atlanta and are making their way across a ruined Southern landscape. For the season premiere they’re in the Georgia countryside where they’ve found, not surprisingly, a Southern Baptist church. I’m thinking most RD readers, if they saw this most recent episode, threw some popcorn at the screen. Why? Well, apparently The Walking Dead needs to hire some historical/religious a…

Rev Raphael Warnock: If Churches Aren’t in Trouble With Power, They’re Probably in Bed With It

By Evan Derkacz

…h Reverend Raphael Warnock senior pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (Martin Luther King’s pulpit), who said: If you are a church that’s never in good trouble with the powers, then you’re probably in bed with the powers. And the American church—I don’t see any signs that abusive power, that those who would maintain the status quo and the broadening gap between the haves and have nots, those who continue to build this massive, increas…

Josh Duggar Arrest For Child Sexual Abuse Material is Part of a Systemic Problem in Evangelicalism

By Chrissy Stroop

…purity culture. After I raised the issue here on RD in connection with the Atlanta spa murderer’s evangelical background, major media outlets included it in their coverage of the racist and sexist murder spree. It’s my hope that we will continue to see that kind of scrutiny applied to evangelical theology and subculture, because evangelicals’ authoritarian beliefs and practices give rise to violence over, and over, and over again, and will continu…

Smashing Our Idols: A Response from Evangelical Leader David Gushee

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…a prominent author and Christian ethics professor at Mercer University in Atlanta. I wrote of this clash in an earlier post, but here is a quick summary. Gushee, an evangelical Christian, recently stated in a review of the book Crisis in the Christian Century that those in the church who have harmed gays and lesbians through the teaching of God’s rejection of such people must ask for the LGBT community’s forgiveness. I acknowledged that this is a…

Can a Morehouse College Man be Openly Gay?

By Rev. Irene Monroe

…baseball bat for allegedly looking at him in the shower. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Love did not have his glasses on, allegedly peering through the shower curtain to see whether or not it was his roommate. Unfortunately for Love it was Aaron Price in the shower. But many on Morehouse’s campus felt then and do now that peering in a student’s shower is an act that not only transgresses Price’s privacy as a man, but also warrants…

Paul Crouch, Architect of Prosperity Gospel Televangelism, Dead at 79

By Sarah Posner

…nded one of those notorious TBN “Praise-A-Thons” at the network’s suburban Atlanta studio. (For more on what happened that night, see this post on prosperity gospel and foreclosure.) The studio audience is nothing more than a prop. While the audience is asked to deliver money to an altar ready-made for the cameras, the real money comes pouring in from those at home. The people in the studio audience, some bussed there in church vans, are true beli…

Like Your Small Church? Don’t Be So Selfish!

By Anita Little

…crowd at a megachurch, you might just be “stinking selfish,” according to Atlanta-based megachurch pastor Andy Stanley. During his sermon last week, Stanley said that going to smaller churches, just “teaches your children to hate church,” and that only bigger churches offer the potential to connect with more believers: You care nothing about the next generation. All you care about is you and your five friends. You don’t care about your kids…anybo…

‘It’s Time to Defend our Children Outside of the Womb’: Pray Vote Stand Connects Anti-Abortion and Anti-Trans Messages

By PRA Staff

…Summit. All posts can be found here. – eds 9/15/2022 Morning First Baptist Atlanta is huge—a sprawling campus of parking lots and Grecian-revival entrances to the church itself. Inside, hallways beget hallways beget hallways, all leading to the plush auditorium that serves as a sanctuary. Vendor booths from familiar Christian Right groups like The Heritage Foundation, Alliance Defending Freedom, Standing for Freedom Center and The Leadership Insti…

The Queerness of Christian Ethics: A Conversation with Rev. Elizabeth Edman

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…two backup singers sang country gospel every Sunday night at a gay club in Atlanta and the place was always packed. People sat on barstools drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, and praising God. They knew all the words, and they smiled and danced while they sang. They were enraptured, taken over by their joy. They were worshiping. That bar was church. I can’t help but think that it’s like this even in our “secular” spaces. When queer people come tog…