About Me
Many people experience a conflicted relationship with the Church, a struggle that dates back nearly 1700 years. In 325 AD, the Church was seduced by the "whore of Babylon"—a metaphor for the Roman Empire—through Emperor Constantine, my namesake. This pivotal moment merged the Church with the State, creating a Jekyll and Hyde contradiction at the heart of Christianity.
Despite the good the Church has accomplished over the centuries, this unholy alliance has fundamentally undermined its mission. Instead of rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's, we blended the sacred with the secular. This contradiction is glaringly evident today in the evangelical support for Trump.
As a devout Christian, I was seduced into believing that the exercise of political power was a necessary component of faithfulness to Christ, becoming what I now call a "Constantinian Whore." With two advanced degrees in theology and experience pastoring eight churches across conservative, charismatic, and liberal lines, I've witnessed the pervasive contradiction of Constantinian Christianity inside the Church.
In "The Matrix," Morpheus tells Neo: "Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me."
This blog invites you to take the antidote of Christ and break free from the Constantinian matrix.
