The first volume of my collection of essays entitled Theological Musings: Collected Essays of a Tattooed Theologian comes out in August from https://quoir.com/. The collection covers a variety of topics from public theology to racism and anti-LGBTQIA bigotry. Early reviews are in and I'm quite humbled by what is being said. This remarkable many-faceted volume …
Tag: America
It’s Pride Month: Let’s talk about grooming
In 2016 a high profile professional footballer was sentenced to six years in prison in England. It was a tremendous scandal because the player in question was a Premier League player who had been capped a dozen times by the English national team. Because of his talent, Adam Johnson had the world at his feet. …
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The heresy of Christian nationalism
Christian nationalists are making a lot of noise these days on social media and elsewhere about wanting to set up a Christian theocracy in the United States because they don't like things such as "wokism" or "gender ideology" which in turn is because they're pro-bigotry. Take William E. Wolfe who served as the Deputy Assistant …
Capitalism kills: A brief theological exploration of the love of money
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. 1 Timothy 6:10 Our economic system is capitalistic and it has been since Europeans first invaded the North American continent centuries ago. …
Continue reading Capitalism kills: A brief theological exploration of the love of money
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 …
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 …
The Tattooed Theologian 