On November 11th of last year, the pundit Ayaan Hirsi Ali released an essay on the media platform UnHerd titled “Why I am now a Christian.” In the essay, Hirsi Ali—formerly a prominent ex-Muslim atheist—announces her conversion to Christianity and explicates the reasons for her change of faith. I don’t find her reasons to be…
Category: criticism
On Spiritual Teachers
Some people claim to have a spiritual authority that permits them to teach of spiritual matters to others. I think that some people do indeed have this authority, by virtue of their experience and education in such matters and the authenticity of their character, while others are charlatans.
Joel Osteen and Christian Hegemony
I’ve written often on the subject of the Hegemon, my collective word for religious and cultural hegemonies that appropriate and contort religions and their sacred texts for the purposes of power and manipulation, but it’s largely been in the abstract. Today I’ll take a look at a real-world, concrete example.