I grew up in churches that did not follow the liturgical calendar or the Christian year. Our church year, such as it was, had only two noteworthy celebrations- Christmas and Easter. Christmas was celebrated as a single day, and Easter was marked by Good Friday and Easter Sunday, with both a sunrise service and …
Tag: Jesus
“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 …
There’s something happening here…
Around three years ago, I attended church for the first time in a many years. Prior to that I had rejected the fundamentalism of my youth and as a result ended up spiritually adrift for a long time. When I left the church in 2003, for more details see my forthcoming book from Wipf …
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 …
Who am I to judge?
Love, grace, compassion
America first?
We are in the midst of yet another dark chapter in American history, which is replete with various crimes against humanity including genocide, murder, chattel slavery, warfare for profit, and being the only nation to ever drop nuclear weapons on another country-- the second bomb being a weapons test and not strategically "necessary". …
Today’s theological reflection
June 23, 2018 “The confusion of peace with security is a daily routine in our violent state of affairs. Judicial peace, school peace, marital peace – all degenerate into security under the influence of violent methods. The use of violence , expressed in force, extortion, and control, destroys the the end and increasingly replaces it …
Pride Month: A Christian reflection
In the early 1990s I was indoctrinated, the only other appropriate word would be brainwashed, into fearing and discriminating against those who were born homosexual. It was a time of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” in the military and I was in the Marines. I was also a member of a Southern Baptist Church in Honolulu …
The Tattooed Theologian 