R. Douglas Geivett's Blog

When Vanessa Johnson served as a Wayne County Michigan prosecutor, her work included cases involving sexual assault and crimes against vulnerable victims. Following her prosecutorial career, Ms. Johnson has devoted her energies to advocating for victims of sexual abuse and trauma. Today she released a video in which she evaluates the legal implications of comments […]

In their official response to recent allegations by Mike Winger, Bethel Church leaders have admitted to being too “merciful” toward Shawn Bolz. But they deny that they were ever involved in a deliberate coverup. So, is Mike Winger on the wrong track? Or does cover-up culture go even deeper than Mike alleges? Holly Pivec and […]

Perhaps you’ve heard of the New Apostolic Reformation. This movement promotes the view that certain divinely anointed individuals exercise significant authority for the church in their capacity as apostles and prophets for today. Shawn Bolz is a NAR prophet with close ties to Bethel Church (Redding, California), including the apostle Bill Johnson and the prophet […]

In August 2022, Holly Pivec and I met with Michael L. Brown for a Roundtable discussion that was released July 15, 2024 under the title “NAR: Myth or Movement?” The release of that discussion for public viewing was delayed for nearly two years for reasons that may eventually come to light. In the end, the […]

By Doug Geivett and Holly Pivec Over several decades, the Christian radio host Michael Brown has fashioned a narrative with himself starring as a high-profile representative of charismatics and Pentecostals. And for a long time this was his reputation with quite a number of his followers. But that narrative is unraveling. His zealous defense of […]

My new book with Holly Pivec, Counterfeit Kingdom: The Dangers of New Revelation, New Prophets, and New Age Practices in the Church, is about to be released. It can be preordered now at Amazon.

Looking for a worthwhile news and commentary aggregator, I found Dave Pell’s celebrated NextDraft site. The background buzz was almost intoxicating. Maria Konnikova, of The New Yorker, declares it to be “a consistently informative and entertaining guide to some of the best stories on the web, with a healthy mix of news you should know, […]

One of the paradoxes of human existence is that, while there is nothing new under the sun, nothing stays the same. And so it is in the world of ideas. It is no less so in the realm of religious belief, even when the object of belief is eternal and changeless. As long as Christian belief […]

Here is a brief excerpt from my first book, Evil and the Evidence for God, published in 1993: “Some philosophers have been rather adroit in their expression of this theme. For Gabriel Marcel, the only problem of evil is what is sometimes called the ‘existential’ mode of the problem. If Marcel is correct, this language intrudes a […]

“The American People” is an abstraction. It is a fiction. Yet pundits and politicians are always saying it. American pundits and politicians. When this began, I do not know. But to refer to fellow-citizens of the United States in this way is to fictionalize real people and to regard them as somehow separate from oneself. […]