After a week of cutthroat battles between some of the biggest personalities and most controversial issues in American Christianity, it all comes down to this!!

Who will be this year’s champion of American Christianity???

Will the survivor of Monkey Town be able to survive the phenomenon of God’s chosen athlete?

Or will the most prolific public pray-er in professional sports continue his improbable run towards immortality?

Both of our combatants have tallied thousands of votes on their way to the championship match. So, they’re going to need TONS of more votes if they’re going to win it all.

However, BE CAREFUL!!!

Voting is unlimited, but if you vote too often, too quickly, Poll Daddy will give you a “time out” to “cool off”. You won’t be able to vote for 4 hours and, unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about it.

So, if you really want to maximize votes for your favorite, then share this page with everyone you know on Facebook, Twitter, etc. and get them in on the voting.

ONE LAST THING: Just to keep things interesting, you won’t be able to see voting tallies after 7pm CST. We’ll keep you updated on Twitter, but the only way to make sure your pick will win is to vote, vote, vote until midnight. Then you’ll have to sweat it out until we announce the winner tomorrow morning at 8am CST. Sorry, we’re just evil like that.

Well that’s it.

No more hype. No more talk. No more doing anything productive at work because….

It’s time to decide to 2012 American Jesus Madness Champion!!!

VOTING FOR THE 2012 AMERICAN JESUS MADNESS CHAMPIONSHIP IS NOW CLOSED. CHECK BACK TOMORROW @ 8AM CST TO FIND OUT WHO WON!!!

After more than 50,000 votes cast we finally have our 2012 champions matchup!!

Rachel Held Evans vs. Tim Tebow

Voting for the championship game will take place starting Monday at 8am CST.

So, you’ve got all weekend to rally support for whoever you want to be crowned the 2012 American Jesus Madness champion. If these two continue to get the votes they’ve received throughout the tournament, then they’ll need all the support they can get!!

Besides, we both know you’ll be spending all day Monday being frustrated over your already busted NCAA bracket. What better way to take out your frustration than by wasting your entire day voting on a fictitious bracket!!

Until then, here are the exact results of today’s matchups, followed by the latest update of our bracket challenge leaderboard.

4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse Results

Rachel Held Evans – 1,320         Masculinity – 239

Tim Tebow – 2,414         Stephen Colbert’s Lent Ashes – 1,721

Bracket Challenge Leaderboard**

1. Kara Govoni – 100 points

2. Clint Wrede – 76 points

3. Greg Dill – 72 points

4. Kim Waggoner – 65 points

5. Brian Daughtry – 61

** BRACKET LEADERS: Don’t forget that the championship game is WORTH 40 POINTS!! So, this thing is still wide open!!**

We’ve come a long way and now we’re only 1 round away from the 2012 American Jesus Madness Championship Game!!

Who’s going to play in the championship game, however, is completely up to you.

On one side of the bracket the queen of Biblical womanhood, Rachel Held Evans, finally comes face to face with her archnemesis: Masculinity.

On the other side of the bracket God will have to decide between his favorite athelete and his most devoted parody news anchor’s outward side sign of an invisible grace.

Of course, you will be God’s hands and feet in that matchup since you will be the one actually voting.

That’s important work. The fate of a fictitious bracket is in your hands. I can’t think of a higher honor.

As wonderful as the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse are, I’m afraid they must be paired down to 2.

So, without further ado….let the voting begin!!

****DON’T FORGET: There is NO LIMIT ON HOW MANY TIMES YOU CAN VOTE. So vote shamelessly and vote often!!****

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED FOR THE 4 HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE ROUND

After yet another day of incredible matchups we finally have our 2012 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse!!

Well, technically it’s the 3 Horsemen & the Horselady of the Apocalypse, but it’s just as epic.

Here are your final tallies from yesterday….

Egregious 8 Results

Rachel Held Evans - 1,725           In-N-Out – 1,124

Masculinity - 1,201          Women’s Health – 952

Stephen Colbert’s Lent Ashes - 459          Rational Christianity – 218

Tim Tebow - 572          Church Discipline – 198

And of course, here’s the update for our bracket challenge….

Bracket Challenge Leaderboard

1. Kara Govoni – 80 points

2. Clint Wrede – 56 points

3. Greg Dill – 52 points

4. Kim Waggoner – 45 points

5. Brian Daughtry – 41 points

REMEMBER:
Voting for the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse begins TODAY @ 9AM CST!!!

Would you believe we’ve already had 25,000 votes cast in the 2nd annual American Jesus Madness tournament?!

Yeah, we can’t believe it either.

Well, we’re getting down to crunch time. It’s the round of the Egregious 8 with winners going on to the elite 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse round.

Lots of questions surround the Egregious 8….

Will Rachel Held Evans be able to overcome the mighty In-N-Out?

Who will win the gender war between ‘Masculinity’ and ‘Women’s Health’?

Can ‘Rational Christianity’ keep steamrolling or will Stephen Colbert’s Lent Ashes get “the Colbert bump” into the next round?

And with all his public praying will Tim Tebow finally succumb to ‘Church Discipline’?

It’s all up to you! Remember, as always, you can vote an unlimited amount of times until midnight tonight.

Or at least until Poll Daddy gives you a time out to “cool off”. Our apologies to those who’ve run into that problem. We had no idea that would happen, but we geniunely appreciate all the hard work you put in to reaching that milestone.

Anyway, no more talk!

It’s time to vote!

VOTING HAS CLOSED FOR THE EGREGIOUS 8 ROUND OF AMERICAN JESUS MADNESS

Wow!!

With over 16,000 votes cast in the Salacious 16 round, that had to have been the most exciting finish of the tournament so far!

Granted, we’ve only been doing this for 2 days, but still. Exciting nonetheless.

Rachel Held Evans made a miraculous comeback, overcoming a 500 vote deficit in the last hour to eek out a win over @FakeDriscoll.

Tolerance lost again as ‘Gay Affirming Christians’ were defeated by 98 votes by the almighty In-N-Out.

And in the closest battle so far, ‘Women’s Health’ eliminated Invisible Children by a mere 4 votes! Which, probably isn’t a terrible thing since Invisible Children sort of has more important things going on at the moment.

Just kidding. There’s nothing more important than fictitious tournaments pitting real people against abstract concepts.

Fun fact: Joel Osteen’s matchup with ‘Church Discipline’ ended up with a total of 666 votes cast.

For reals. Just saying.

Anyway, things are REALLY heating up for the Egregious 8 round. But before voting resumes again, here’s the results from all of your Salacious 16 matchups….

Salacious 16 Results

Rachel Held Evans – 3,794         @FakeDriscoll – 3, 615

In-N-Out – 1,217         Gay Affirming Christians – 1,119

Masculinity – 439         Jefferson Bethke – 286

Women’s Health – 1,331         Invisible Children – 1.327

Rational Christianity – 507         Discernment Ministries – 103

Stephen Colbert’s Lent Ashes – 595         Social Justice Christians – 425

Church Discipline – 437         Joel Osteen – 229

Tim Tebow – 561         Third Eagle of the Apocalypse – 256

And here’s the latest update for our bracket challenge leaderboard….

Bracket Challenge Leaderboard

1. Kara Govoni – 50 points

2. Clint Wrede – 36 points

3. Greg Dill – 32 points

4. Brian Daughtry – 31 points

5. Sally Duncan – 28 points

Get ready to start voting again!

Voting for the Egregious 8 round starts TODAY at 9am CST!!

Welcome to the Salacious 16 round!

It’s like the NCAA’s “Sweet 16″, but more salacious.

How is salacious? It just is.

Anyway, we’ve got some more incredible matchups this round….

@FakeDriscoll vs. Rachel Held Evans

Discernment Ministries vs. Rational Christianity

Joel Osteen vs. Church Discipline

Who will win and advance to the Egregious 8 round?? As always, it’s up to you!

Not sure who to vote for? Look back over our original matchup breakdowns for some guidance.

Remember: you can vote as many times as you like. So, vote shamelessly and vote often!

VOTING HAS CLOSED FOR THE SALACIOUS 16 ROUND OF AMERICAN JESUS MADNESS

With almost 9,000 votes cast the results are in!

There were some blowouts, but there were also some pretty big upsets.

Discernment Ministries over Rob Bell??

Church Discipline over Matthew Paul Turner??

But such is the will of the people….

1st Round Results

@FakeDriscoll – 929             Mark Driscoll – 94                                            

Rachel Held Evans – 457             Complimentarianism – 320

Gay Affirming Christians – 384             Westboro Baptist – 36          

In-N-Out – 455             Chik-Fil-A – 229

Masculinity – 260             John Piper – 96                                                   

Jefferson Bethke – 334             Pope Benedict XVI – 188

Women’s Health – 357             Rick Santorum – 78                                          

Invisible Children – 214             Jack Chick – 90

Discernment Ministries – 452             Rob Bell – 347                            

Rational Christianity – 333           Pat Robertson – 63

Stephen Colbert’s Lent Ashes – 308             Justin Beiber’s Jesus Tattoo – 55                

Social Justice Christians – 306             Social Conservative Christians – 51

Joel Osteen  - 131             Eddie Long – 128                                                  

Church Discipline – 468             Matthew Paul Turner – 451

Third Eagle of the Apocalypse – 294             2012 Apocalypse – 171             

Tim Tebow – 410             Jeremy Lin – 266

And here’s the leaderboard for those of you that submitted a bracket. Remember, points increase dramatically with each round. So, even if you don’t see yourself in the top 5, don’t lose hope! Keep voting! You can still win this thing!

Bracket Challenge Leaderboard

1.  Kara Govoni – 15 points

2. Greg Dill – 12 points

3. (tie) Aaron Rostad – 11 points

3. (tie) Brian Daughtry – 11 points

3. (tie) Clint Wrede – 11 points

Get ready to start voting again!

Voting for the Salacious 16 round starts TODAY at 9am CST!!

Voting is still underway for the 1st round, but we wanted to go ahead and give you a heads up about the schedule for the rest of the tournament….

Midnight Tonight – Voting for the 1st round ends

8am Wednesday, March 14th - 1st Round matchup winners will be announced & we will give you a leaderboard update for those that submitted brackets

9am Wednesday. March 14th – Voting for the “Salacious 16″ round will begin and last until midnight Wednesday night

8am Thursday, March 15th – We will announce the Salacious 16 winners and update the leaderboard

9am Thursday, March 15th - Voting for the “Egregious 8″ round will begin and last until midnight Thursday night

8am Friday, March 16th – We will announce the Egregious 8 winners and update the leaderboard

9am Friday, March 16th – Voting for the “4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse” round will begin and last until midnight SUNDAY night

8am Monday, March 19th – We will announce the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse winners and update the leaderboard

9am Monday, March 19th – Voting for the American Jesus Madness Championship will begin and last until midnight Monday night

8am Tuesday, March 20th – We will announce the winner of the 2nd annual American Jesus Madness tournament as well as the winner of our bracket challenge

*Note: All times as CST

American Jesus Madness is officially underway!!

Brackets have been submitted and now it’s time too vote.

You don’t have to have submitted a bracket in order to vote, nor is their a limit on how many times you can vote. But if you did submit a bracket, make sure you have all of your friends stop by and vote for your picks so you can make sure you win our $50 iTunes gift card!

And remember, you can vote for whoever or whatever you want to for whatever reason you choose. But we will judge you if you vote for Mark Driscoll or John Piper.

Anyway, the talk is over! Let the voting begin!

UPDATE: Apparently “block repeat voting” had not been turned off on the polls. It’s fixed now, so you can now vote as often as you like. Please accept our humblest apologies for the mixup.

UPDATE 2: REMEMBER – voting ends at midnight (CST) tonight!!

VOTING HAS CLOSED FOR THE 1ST ROUND OF AMERICAN JESUS MADNESS