Assumption of Mary: Mediterranean Maid & Mother

Last updated on: August 14, 2020 at 10:13 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

The Assumption of Mary offers us a challenge—either see her with new eyes or continue using her as a theological weapon for unjust structures and hegemony. Mary is beloved by Catholics worldwide. That is, the Mary we’ve created. The overwhelming majority of Catholics approach her exclusively through what I call “the devotional and the emotional.” Few critically reflect on this or her. Please watch the video below carefully… Mary in the New Testament and History You would never know from... Read more

Prophets Edited in Sunday Readings

Last updated on: August 14, 2020 at 8:34 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

Prophets like Elijah get their ugly parts redacted in Mass readings. The Prophets can be thought of as the Debbie Downers of the Bible. That’s true for even the greatest of Old Testament prophets, Elijah. So once more, last Sunday’s readings (e.g., 1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a) displayed how those who engineered the Common Lectionary have done another Frankenstein-style operation on the Bible. The result is likewise monstrous: the creation of new Scripture at the expense of murdering the old. That’s... Read more

Romans 9—11: Challenges for American Christians

Last updated on: August 13, 2020 at 2:57 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

Romans 9—11 offers challenges to American Christian individualistic complacency. This past Sunday, we read from Paul, specifically Romans 9:1-5. People who created the Lectionary tore the second reading bleeding out of context from “Romans.” But don’t make too much of a big deal about that. Because for what seems like forever, Christians of all stripes have enjoyed making way too much of a big deal out of this authentic letter of Paul. It’s ironic, given that it was not intended... Read more

Why You Don’t Understand Jesus’ Sea-Walking

Last updated on: August 9, 2020 at 12:27 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Why you don’t understand Jesus’ Sea-walking is because you are reading Mediterranean Gospels strained through inappropriate cultural scenarios. This Sunday’s Gospel is the Matthean version of a tradition where Jesus’ followers experience a vision of him walking on the Sea. The Gospels give three renderings of this tradition—Mark 6;45-52; Matthew 14:22-33 (Sunday’s Gospel); and John 6:16-21. We explored each of these in an earlier blogpost here. For a quick breakdown, watch the video here— Sunday’s Gospel: Jesus Walking on the Sea Here... Read more

Blind Spots Ruin Christianity

Last updated on: August 8, 2020 at 12:14 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

Our blind spots render Christianity useless to help and heal the Dark Age we have entered. It’s scary to think about how many decisions we make, we really don’t. I mean that we are not even there to make the decisions. Oh, sure, decisions do get made, nonetheless. But we didn’t make them—mom did. Or dad did. Maybe friends. Maybe grandparents. Or some other influence. But not you or I. Because for you to really make a decision, you’d have... Read more

Trump and 666—Any Connections?

Last updated on: August 4, 2020 at 4:12 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

Trump and 666 is a marriage made in hell, or in the popular imaginations of many, but not at all can be found in the Apocalypse. We’ve been exploring the terribly understood final book of the New Testament canon in recent posts here, here, and here. Specifically, we’ve been going into 666 and the sky beast over the sea that numeral represents. Now let’s contrast all that with popular U.S. Christian imagination and its obsessions. Are there any connections between... Read more

More Important than Belief in the Real Presence?

Last updated on: July 31, 2020 at 4:04 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

More important than belief in the real presence is knowing who is really present. Sometimes questions ruffle feathers. This happens quite often among Christians who receive tough questions. If faith is only expressed inside the emotional and devotional with little to no critical reflection, yes, some feathers will eventually be ruffled. It’s like when the preacher visited the old woman. He informed her that if she accepted Jesus she would be saved. And the preacher even spelled that out for... Read more

What Do Babylon & the Sea Beast of Apocalypse Really Mean?

Last updated on: July 30, 2020 at 9:25 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

Babylon, the Sea Beast, 666, and everything else in the book of Revelation is not about Nero, Rome, or the Roman Empire. Following up from our last post, some people insist that Revelation be understood as promising that God will judge polytheistic Rome. This is because the Empire persecuted Christians. To readers like these, the villain of Revelation is Rome. But is there any evidence for this? Christians in the 21st century need to understand something about words, language, and... Read more

The Beast in Revelation: What and Who?

Last updated on: July 30, 2020 at 9:46 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

The Beast in Revelation 13:1-18 wasn’t Emperor Nero, but rather a sea monster constellation. Who or what is the Beast in Revelation? Is it Antichrist? Is it even human? Many readers react to Apocalypse or the book called Revelation the way many viewers do after watching a film by David Lynch. In other words, confused. Last post, with much help from Context Group scholars Bruce Malina and John Pilch, I dealt with Revelation, the very misunderstood final book of the New... Read more

Apocalypse & 666: What Does this Mean?

Last updated on: July 28, 2020 at 4:27 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

Apocalypse, or the book of Revelation, generates much ignorance and confusion, not the least of which is the infamous number 666. The first time I taught the Apocalypse (or the book of Revelation) was 2001. It was right around the same time as the September 11 attacks. Classes were on Monday evenings at the same Church I used to park my car at to sleep safely just two years prior. Of course, the unthinkable (for Americans) happened the very next... Read more