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Insiders until they’re not

A simple line cartoon shows an ex-vangelical person chained at the ankle to a huge ball labeled evangelical.

Martin Luther stood in peril of his earthly life and possibly his eternal soul. The energetic Wittenberg firebrand challenged more than he realized when he issued debating points to the popular indulgence seller Johann Tetzel. …

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A bank full of beggars

The Parcast Network’s Conspiracy Theories podcast recently did a four-episode deep dive into the supposed mysteries of the Vatican. While some parts were interesting and some were just silly, it opened with what I thought …

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Peace with Graham

Billy Graham is shown in this black and white image as he speaks.

One of my pastors offered a humorous shorthand for dealing with the complexities of defining American evangelicalism when I was a teenager. He repeated the joke, popular at the time, that an evangelical was anyone …

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Exvangelical: Peeps just in time for Easter

Three rows of Peeps marshmallow treats are shown in pink, yellow, and blue.

In 1953, Russian immigrant Sam Born purchased the Rodda Candy Company and promptly replaced the handcrafted marshmallow chick line with the cold mechanization of mass production to make Peeps . What was once the work …

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Profundity and Absurdity

The black and white image shows the outdoor proceedings of the Scopes trial with multiple men dressed in white dress shirts.

The two aging gladiators met on a makeshift wooden platform outside the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, TN. The most famous courtroom scene in American history did not even take place in a courtroom. The …

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