Contact:
Anyone can contact me for anything at:
mustardseed[dot]blog[at]
gmail[dot]com
About the Author:
I’m the co-creator of the blog Double Consciousness, a blog that “is dedicated towards the study and refutation of white supremacy and white privilege in American society and the study of contemporary racist thought and how it effects people of color and whites.” I’m also an editor at the blog aggregator The Blog and the Bullet, a blog that seeks to link to the “best blogs on racial issues, white supremacy, and other radical musings.” I work for UPS and I’m a shop steward for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; you can catch my thoughts on my work and union work at The Ghost of Tom Joad. I graduated with my bachelors in journalism and minor in religious studies at San Francisco State University and I’m now getting my masters in theology at the Graduate Theological Union.
About the Blog:
This is a blog incorporates my thoughts on mainly theological issues, international relations, politics, and race.
This blog’s perspective comes from a biblical critical/liberation theologist perspective and also from a critical theory/post-modern and Marxist perspective. So this is the type of interpretation you will see in this blog.
About the Title:
The name “The Mustard Seed” comes from a parable of Jesus which can be found in the New Testament books of Matthew 13: 31-34, Mark 4:30-32, and Luke 13:18-19. In it Jesus describes the Kingdom of God being like a “mustard seed.” Using biblical criticisms, theologian and historian John Dominic Corssan described the parable in this way: In the parable Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, starting off small but then becoming something quite larger “so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” (Mk 4:32, NRSV). During the 1st century C.E. a common parable for the Kingdom of God was that of a ceder tree, so already there is a complete breaking off of the traditional view of heaven. Instead of a majestic ceder tree it is a pesky mustard brush. Speaking in agrarian circles this break in imagery wouldn’t have gone unnoticed. A mustard brush is a farmers enemy, it is like a weed that soon overtakes and chokes off all of the plants in a farmers yard. Also the use of birds is quite telling as well since birds are also a farmers enemy since they steal their seeds and eat their fruits. So saying that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed means that the Kingdom of God will soon choke out the mainstream pillars of what makes society run (capitalism) and by saying that it gives shade to the birds means that it will give protection to the pariah’s of society, the outcasts and the criminals who must steal from the state in order to survive (lumpen proletariat).
So essentially the title of this blog is an announcement of my religious, political, and socilogical views as well as a meaning of what this blog will hopefully become: starting of small and than growing into a much larger blog.
It’s also an aggregator for my posts from my other blogs (further in “About the Author”).
