On November 10, 1775 in a tavern in Philadelphia the United States Marine Corps was born. 215 years later, on November 9, 1990, I graduated from boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) in San Diego, CA thus earning the title Marine. My arrival at MCRD had occurred on August 13, 1990, which …
Category: Theological reflections
Dear Speaker Johnson
You've been in the news a lot lately because inexplicably you've been promoted to the lofty position of Speaker of the House. This is confusing to many Americans because you tried to overturn the last presidential election simply because your guy lost. It didn't matter to you that Trump was using Christian nationalists like yourself …
Breaking the rules
Last week my friend and I broke a rule. This rule is, for many evangelical Christians, a big one. According to them, breaking this rule is a huge no-no and something that God definitely frowns upon. Before I reveal the rule, allow me to briefly touch upon what we did that was so egregious in …
Yes, it is, Joe. Now act like it.
This week the GOP held their first presidential debate during which only one candidate stated that climate change is real. In response, President Biden tweeted "Climate change is real, by the way," ostensibly to show the vast disparity between the two major political parties in America when it comes to climate change. To be sure …
Jesus wept.
August 14, 1990 On August 14, 1990, an 18 year old boy from a small town in north Texas was feeling especially anxious. He had flown from Dallas to San Diego, CA late the night of August 13, and was now in a room in the middle of the night with hundreds of people he …
Pronouns in bio
The above screenshot is from a response to one of my tweets on the social media hellscape formerly known as Twitter. It's a typical response from right-wing bigots to anyone on social media who recognizes that gender is far more complex than their binary, often gender essentialist, views. Another typical response is, "Pronouns in bio, …
Dear white people IV
The white supremacists are at it again in America. Ron DeFascist, I mean, Ron DeSantis, has implemented an anti-educational policy for Florida's schools that teaches that the enslaved benefited from slavery. Meanwhile, country music star Jason Aldean released a video for his racist dog whistle song entitled Try that in a small town. The video …
Whither love?
Christians are often broadly painted with the same brush by people as a large homogeneous group. When I was immersed in the fundamentalist's worldview, the term Christians meant the people who believed as I did that the Bible is inerrant, penal substitution was the heart of the gospel, and all nonbelievers were going to suffer …
Perverse obscenity
In recent weeks two men with obscene levels of wealth stroked their overly developed egos as they became the first private citizens to fund a trip to "space." It seemingly did not matter to Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos that what they were doing was an utterly pointless vanity project, or that NASA has been …
Lent in the time of Covid
Lent is here again, and Covid-19 remains the reality in our lives. Usually during Lent, we think about what we are giving up as our fast during this season leading to Easter, and often it is something like meat, wine, chocolate, or sex that people choose to eschew. Perhaps this year is different due to …
The Tattooed Theologian 