Just about two years ago, I began the process of creating The New Theology School. Since then, we’ve grown to over thirty doctoral students and nearly a dozen doctoral graduates. Presently, I serve as our Dean and as a regular mentor to our doctoral students. Our most recent graduate is The Rev. Dr. Joseph Blotz. A previous graduate of Pacific School of Religion, Dr. Blotz is a United Church of Christ minister serving as Pastor of the First Church... Read more
A Thought Pattern on Fear and War / Within and in Ukraine In the midst of all that is troubling our souls within and in Ukraine, I decided to construct a thought pattern…which if followed is capable of creating peace. The root of war is always fear. We fear what we don’t know. So we don’t speak. We fear what we don’t understand. So we don’t think. We fear being wrong. So we don’t come to conclusions. ... Read more
On the Theological Ethics of Assassinating Vladimir Putin Earlier tonight, Russian President Vladimir Putin started an unprovoked war with Ukraine. Missiles started raining down on Kyiv and other parts of the country just seconds ago. For months, Putin has held the world in suspense as he has slowly amassed Russian troops at the Ukrainian border. In the coming days, Europe will experience its’ largest military conflict since World War II. The only explanation is that Putin wants... Read more
Food Queeries: Liberating Our Cuisine / Dialogue at The New Theology School: Jeff Hood & Mark Sandlin forgive the grammatical errors / it’s an unedited transcript Rev. Mark Sandlin 00:02 Hello, and thanks for joining us. This interaction is the introduction to a project that I’m working on with The New Theology School. And we’re gonna get into what that is in just a minute. But first, I wanted to welcome and thank Jeff Hood, who is a... Read more
*As the title might indicate…this bizarre story is some do-gooding white Christians who have do-gooded themselves right back to the racist place that they started from. Before I get into any of the bullshit, let me tell you about my friend, Sahar Alsahlani. An immigrant from Iraq, Sahar raised four children on her own while working as a television producer in Los Angeles. Later, she moved to New York and got involved with numerous interfaith spaces. I met her while... Read more
The Moral Bankruptcy of a Violent State…Protesting Prison Expansion& Documenting a Police Beating at the Arkansas State Capitol (including video). THIS WAS MY FIRST TRIP TO THE ARKANSAS STATE CAPITOL. Full video of the rally is here: https://fb.watch/baUb0jA4KT/ The full of the beating is here (skip to middle): https://fb.watch/bauTSeS7Ic/ Today was an exhausting day. With that said, I wanted to quickly put out a blog with everything that I have. Links to the... Read more
Gov. Hutchinson’s Bible Must Be Defective: On the Morality of New Prison Cells in Arkansas “By this the world will know that you are my disciples, if you build more prison cells…” That has got to be how John 13:35 reads in Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson’s Bible. That’s the only way I can think of that he could claim to be a follower of Jesus and ask our legislature for upwards of a hundred million dollars for... Read more
In response to an opinion piece by Rev. Dwight Lee Wolter found at https://religionnews.com/2022/01/24/resisting-hate-is-what-people-of-faith-do-today-it-means-thinking-about-self-defense/ Rev. Dwight Lee Wolter: The Church’s New Rambo This afternoon, I was scrolling through Facebook and came across an opinion piece on Religion New Service entitled, “Resisting hate, as people of faith, includes readiness for self-defense.” For added measure, the preview picture was of two white guys slinging guns around. Assuming it was more nonsense from a right-wing nutjob, I scrolled by. Then, I realized... Read more
The Hostage Crisis at Congregation Beth Israel: Shameful Responses from Christian Clergy Earlier today, a lone distressed gunman entered services at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas and took four hostages (including Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker). Amongst the gunman’s demands was the release of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui (a Pakistani woman who was convicted of terrorism charges in 2010). After 11 hours, the situation ended with the death of the gunman and the rescue of the hostages. Throughout the ordeal,... Read more
The Police Just Burned a Man to Death For nearly a decade, I have worked with families whose loved ones have been killed in all kinds of situations of police brutality. In video after video…. I have seen the police suffocate unarmed people to death. I have seen the police shoot unarmed people to death. I have seen the police run unarmed people over. I have seen the police beat unarmed people to death. I have even... Read more
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