What the Church Failed to Tell You

There's a good chance nobody did this to you on purpose. Your pastor probably loves you. Your Sunday school teacher probably meant every word. The people who handed you a Bible and taught you how to read it almost certainly did so with the best intentions they had.

Who Holds the Receipts?

What a philosophy conference paper has to do with "thank you for your service" Last month I presented a paper at the International Academy of Practical Theology's annual conference at the University of Chicago Divinity School. The paper has a title that sounds like it belongs

Sojourners

All of Me or None of Me: Why I Left Sojourners

For fifteen years, Sojourners magazine used my writing to build their credibility on military issues. When I asked them to remove my unpaid work in January 2025, they refused. What their COO said during our negotiation — which I recorded — exposed everything wrong with how progressive institutions treat veteran voices. What

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20260703 Update 🫩

Why I Call It the Ending-War Chapel

On Exodus 15:3 and the Politics of Vowels The name matters. When I call Martinalia the ending-war chapel, I'm not being poetic or aspirational in the way that advocacy organizations are poetic and aspirational — gesturing toward a future they'll never have to deliver. I

Put Your Own Mask On First

There's a rule in Combat Lifesaver training that runs against every instinct you have as a soldier: self-aid before buddy-aid. If you're bleeding out, you treat yourself first. Not because your life matters more than your buddy's. Because you'll be

GI Justice Is Coming to The Chapter House

I’m launching a biweekly meeting series at The Chapter House (250 Broadalbin St SW #104, Albany) to bring people up to speed on GI Justice and start building real people power around it.

Public Writing

The Receipts Democracy Can’t Discard

Marginal Communities, Semiotic Realism, and the Limits of Dewey's Democratic Inquiry *This is a reading copy (without citations or footnotes) of an academic conference paper I gave at The Institute for American Religious and Philosophical Thought (IARPT) on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. For the general audience explainer, see

Why I'm Archiving My Christian Century Content

Between 2012 and 2022, I published content with The Christian Century—four blog posts early in my writing career, and six months of unpaid work in 2021-2022 that was ultimately rejected. In December 2025, I requested that any unpaid content be removed from their website. This essay explains why,

HCPA Featured

The Law That Forgot Military Families

Congress passed a unanimous hate crimes protection for soldiers and veterans in 2009. The government built everything it promised — for everyone else.

GIJustice

Isaac v. Manning One Year Report

Last September I wrote about being granted the right to sue the politicians in Oregon without paying court fees — and in the same breath being told I'd have to do it without a lawyer. A lot of you responded to that piece. What I realize, looking back, is

Sojourners

WHO IS THE PSALMIST? A response to Adam Joyce

I submitted this piece to Sojourners on May 13, 2026, as a direct response to Adam Joyce’s essay published there. After receiving no response for five days, I escalated to the editor in chief. On May 19, Betsy Shirley replied that they “receive a large number of pitches” and

Featured

On "Artificial" Intelligence and (My) Work

"Artificial" is a pejorative the Brass thought up to keep working Grunts under thumb, as though knee pads and a pair of scissors are superior to an electric riding mower.

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Holy Week 6 (almost there)

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GruntGod2

GruntGod 2.6 (and 7)

The Hazards of Privilege

There is a specific kind of absurdity that only power can produce: the powerful claiming injury at the hands of the powerless. Watch how it works. On May 15, 2025, James Comey posted a photograph to Instagram. Seashells on a North Carolina beach, arranged by tide or chance or a

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😇 Holy Week 2

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Holy Week 1 (AKA Easter)

Public Speaking

UUFC Sermon

*On April 17, 2026, I gave a sermon at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis (UUFC), Oregon. My remarks begin at 23:33:00 "He interpreted all the things… about himself" (Luke 24:27) My message today is for maturing audiences. As a combat veteran, I carry an

Mr. Vice President, We’ve Both Been to War. Only One of Us Went to Divinity School.

A word from a fellow veteran who actually studied this stuff. JD Vance stood in front of a crowd of college students in Athens, Georgia this week and told the Pope to “be careful when he talks about matters of theology.” I’d like to offer a gentle, fraternal word

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I was arrested on Wednesday of Holy Week.

What HillVets Taught Me About How Veteran Nonprofits Fail Veterans

I joined HillVets LEAD in September 2019 as a Cohort 3 protege in the Communications and Media pipeline. I had a newborn and three years of military civil rights advocacy behind me. I thought HillVets was the room I'd been trying to get into. I was right about

The Law Nobody Read - Damien Rodriguez Pt.2

TL;DR — The New York Times nationalized a story built on a false legal premise, amplified it to millions through its flagship podcast, and never corrected it. Meanwhile, the federal law that could have protected Damien Rodriguez — the same law misused to destroy him — went unread by everyone whose job

"It's Obvious" - Damien Rodriguez Pt.2

TL;DR — After a Portland Police Bureau (PPB) spokesperson mischaracterized Oregon law and The Oregonian published a false headline, a restaurant co-owner repeated the "hate crime" label on camera. She was not among the legal victims. She was, however, a witness before the Grand Jury that escalated

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