This Scholar Wants More Liberals and Conservatives at Church Together 39%

5/19/2026, 7:06:57 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 15 faulty reasoning types, including Hasty Generalization, Negativity Bias, and Appeal to Authority, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 35.3% saturation with 55 hits. Analysis detected 463 faulty-reasoning hits from 156 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 44.2% and a BS Rank of 39% (10,364 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 61.60% of the article peer group.

The scholar and pastor Ryan Burge says that, not all that long ago, it was normal for right- and left-leaning evangelical Christians to share the same pews with each other. 
Then came the culture wars, and many churches leaned hard into conservative politics, in turn prompting liberal and moderate churchgoers to leave in droves. 
And Burge says this is a problem because, as he sees it, churches still have a lot to offer the country. 
He’s joining us to talk about why he wants to see more people come back to church and why that’s a good thing for democracy. 
GUEST  
Ryan P. 
Burge | He’s a professor of practice at the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University. 
His book is called “The Vanishing Church: How the Hollowing Out of Moderate Congregations is Hurting Democracy, Faith, and Us.” 
Airdate: May 20, 2026 
Confirmation Bias
0%
Anchoring Bias
0%
Availability Heuristic
0%
Representativeness Heuristic
0%
Hindsight Bias
0%
Overconfidence Bias
0%
Framing Effect
35.3%
Loss Aversion
0%
Status Quo Bias
19.2%
Sunk Cost Effect
0%
Optimism Bias
13.5%
Pessimism Bias
0%
Negativity Bias
28.2%
Self-Serving Bias
0%
Fundamental Attribution Error
0%
Actor-Observer Bias
0%
In-Group Bias
0%
Out-Group Homogeneity Bias
0%
Halo Effect
13.5%
Horn Effect
0%
Dunning-Kruger Effect
0%
Recency Bias
0%
Primacy Effect
11.5%
Blind-Spot Bias
0%
Ad Hominem
0%
Straw Man
0%
Appeal to Authority
27.6%
False Dilemma
0%
Slippery Slope
0%
Circular Reasoning
16%
Hasty Generalization
34.6%
Red Herring
0%
Bandwagon
0%
Appeal to Emotion
12.8%
Begging the Question
13.5%
Post Hoc (False Cause)
15.4%
Tu Quoque
0%
Burden of Proof
0%
Appeal to Nature
0%
Composition/Division
0%
Anecdotal
0%
No True Scotsman
0%
Ambiguity (Equivocation)
0%
Gambler’s Fallacy
0%
Middle Ground
0%
Personal Incredulity
0%
Special Pleading
0%
Genetic Fallacy
0%
Unattributed Quote
0%
Quote-first Misdirection
0%
Biased Writer Voice
26.9%
Indoctrination
16%
Politically Left Leaning Bias
0%
Politically Right Leaning Bias
0%
Attempt to Sell a Product or Service
12.8%

156 words analyzed.

Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.