This is the second episode looking at the subject I call The Obscene Hermeneut, and we ask whether it is possible that we are being polarized against our own neighbors. Have we begun to see evil where it does not exist? This issue seems even more of a problem only a couple years after first … More Wild Theology Flashbacks – The Obscene Hermeneut Part 2
This three part series from the Wild Theology Podcast from two years ago is where my podcast began. Of course, I had to start with something controversial. In this podcast, I extend Paul Ricouer’s concept of the Hermeneutics of Suspicion to what appears to be a growing problem in our interactions with one another. We … More Revisiting Controversial Podcast from 2 Years Ago
I’ve been a Christian since 1980, and a Pentecostal/Evangelical pastor since 1985. I’ve been a pastor on both coasts of the continental United States. First, in Carlsbad, California: a beach city in North San Diego County. Then in the infamous and beautiful New England port city of Salem, MA. I’ve ridden the waves of the … More The Diminishing Returns of the Evangelical Movement
We have half the nation suffering with TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) it appears. It many ways it does not look significantly different that PTSD. People have similar responses of fear in face of otherwise mundane events, inability to navigate basic social situations, depression, mood swings, and uncontrollable angry outbursts. This was not difficult to predict. … More We’re Getting Frontal Lobotomies: Trump and trauma through false proximity
This was my tweet on Friday April 10th. If the world order was benevolent and intelligent this would be a Sabbath year for the earth, and a jubilee year for the people. Unfortunately, the world order is seldom benevolent and only intelligent on short-term gains. The world just might be taking a Sabbath without our … More Are We in a Nature Imposed Sabbath?
You can stay at home and go out for the purposes of the Great Commission at the same time. Not recognizing this potential limits our capacity to touch the world, I talk about this potential in Wild Theology Podcast #25 Wild Theology Podcast #25 – Love Big or Go Home. You can go into all … More Wild Theology Podcast #25 – Go Local
Today, I was reading an article from the BBC about the recent letter from Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell. There is nothing new in this BBC article (except the letter from Marian), and in fact, the information is a number of years old. We were already talking about this stuff at my first Burning Man … More Burning Man, Growth Struggles, Cultural Course Correction…
Premier Christianity Magazine in the UK, and the Church Mission Society have posted a couple things from me in the last few days. The Church Mission Society posted an interview about Halloween, Burning Man, Witches, and festival work. I was a speaker at their conference about “Mission among People who are Spiritual but not Religious”, … More Halloween Blog Post and Interview in the UK
Burning Religion is certainly my most ambitious literary project to date, but it would not have been conceived without the long hard years of working as a pastor in the rather (in)famous little city of Salem, Massachusetts. Almost 20 years of monthlong Halloween entertainment and outreach projects, and befriending the Witchcraft community in Salem helped … More The Reformation of Halloween: Where Burning Religion Began
“Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way … More Constitutional Crisis? Why not a Constitutional Solution?
My last days of summer mission in the UK involved a week and a half of Welsh language in the National Eisteddfod. The Eisteddfod is a Welsh language, poetry, music, art and culture event. It is the largest event of its kind in the world, and brings over 100,000 Welsh speakers together each year. This … More Learning Welsh, Facing Poverty, and Meeting Pagans in Cardiff
“Who are you?” said the caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I-I hardly know sir, just at present- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then,” said Alice. “What do you mean by … More The Problem with Finding Ourselves: Lessons from the Desert Fathers
The last two weeks, I have spent time in two deeply spiritual locations: Land’s End in Cornwall, and Avebury – at one of the famous stone henges. These locations have afforded opportunities to develop relationships with people from other faiths and to engage in spiritual discussion and gatherings with them. In Saint Buryan at Land’s … More Land’s End and Avebury: engagement with other faiths
Some thoughts from my book Burning Religion have been placed into podcast form. Eight to twelve minute segments covering some of the critical philosophical concepts behind the book are now found in my new Wild Theology Podcast. Here are some of the recent offerings, which can be found on my Patreon page: Navigating the Space Between … More Parallaxis and the Distance Between People: Nerd Alert!
This is the first time Easter has been on April Fool’s Day since 1956. In fact, this is only the 15th time Easter has been on April Fool’s Day since the advent of the King James Version of the Bible. A little known fact, is that the year Jesus rose from the dead, it was … More The Importance of the April 1st Easter Resurrection
Burning Religion 