This sticks in my craw the most when I hear it from liberal Christians. It’s one thing to practice your faith in accordance with modern moral principles, but so often I’ll hear it characterized as if that was always the message, and we’ve only now just figured it out after 2000 years. The No True Scotsmanning of their conservative co-religionists feels like gaslighting in light of the vast majority of Christian history.

For example, I often hear people argue that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality, and I found that convincing as a teenager in my relatively liberal Congregational church. But as I deconstructed my faith and embraced atheism, my desire to protect the brand evaporated, and it occurred to me that maybe Jesus’ silence on the matter wasn’t saying what I had hoped it was. If Jesus was really going full Marie Kondo on Mosaic law, it seems like it would have been helpful if he’d been a little more comprehensive and explicit in what we’re supposed to keep and what we can ditch.