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 eternal …
Tag: America
For Mastriano theocracy is the point
I live in Lancaster County, PA, a bucolic area known for its landscapes dotted with farms, its large population of Anabaptists - the Amish, Mennonites, and Church of the Brethren - its welcome of refugees, and the small city of Lancaster at the heart of it all. For the aforementioned Anabaptist groups, their Christian faith …
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 …
The Earth needs a Sabbath
Biblical scripture speaks to the beauty of our home planet, the need to take care of it, and I believe command to reverence it as well. The Orthodox Church in America notes that reverence is hard to define, saying that it can be seen in attitudes of wonder, awe, submission or respect, along with veneration, …
America or Jesus?
When I was a child and into my high school years, I was made to say the "Pledge of Allegiance." This nationalistic pledge is still said in some schools today despite the fact that it is quite dangerous for anyone to say for a variety of reasons, which I will highlight below. For Christians, it …
Unmerited advantages
Privilege is something seen throughout American life by certain individuals and groups. Sometimes it comes in the form of granting someone permission to do something in particular and is relatively innocuous. If the students I am teaching at the school I work at get done with their work, I allow them to use their smart …
“I’m still here.” – A veteran’s story.
This morning I had therapy at the local V.A. clinic. When I went in to my appointment I had thought that this would be a fairly routine session. My plan was to ask my therapist some questions related to the book I am currently working on, which is entitled Traumatic Episodes: Finding grace in a life …
Veteran’s Day: A theological view
In my book Go Golden, I write about war and peace, because warfare is the polar opposite of enacting the golden rule. Yet, here in the U.S. (and in other powerful nations) the military is constantly front and center in society. One way in which militarism is perpetuated is the near deification of the military …
Law and order on the border?
Theological reflection on the caravan of asylum seekers.
Oppression in Jesus’ name
One of the things that gets me riled up is the conflation of things done in the name of a religion by fundamentalists with the actual teachings of said religion. Case in point, America in 2018 is being enthralled, in the most negative sense of that word, by fundamentalist "Christians" who are gleefully celebrating every …
The Tattooed Theologian 