GruntGod 2.6 (and 7)
Hey —
I fell behind. You noticed, or you didn't, but either way: the cadence slipped and I owe you the honest version of why and what's next.
Life got loud. It does. But the work kept moving even when the publishing didn't, and I've spent the last several weeks finishing the revision of the P(s)aul chapter — which turned out to be bigger and more complicated than I expected. Psaul of Tarsus has that effect on people.
GruntGod 2.6 is now complete. Here's the Bonus Content you missed or what's worth going back to:
2.6.1 — "Snipped and/or Dipped"
https://pewpewhq.com/trng/gruntgod-261
The Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 gets read as a theological argument. It was also a logistical one: what do you actually require of someone who wants to join? James's compromise — dropping mandatory circumcision — accidentally leveled the gender hierarchy embedded in the old covenant-marking system. One entrance requirement. The 🍆 is now optional. Psaul himself had both markers (circumcised at birth, baptized on the Damascus road) and spent his career insisting neither one was a membership requirement for anyone else.
2.6.2 — "When 'Christian' Was a Slur"
https://pewpewhq.com/trng/gruntgod-262
The word "Christian" was coined by outsiders in Antioch who meant it as a put-down. Christianos in Roman usage meant roughly "slave of the Anointed" — and since the Anointed in question had been publicly executed, the joke wrote itself. The early church kept the name anyway. First Peter 4:16 says don't be ashamed of it. Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr — all wore it as a badge. The mechanism is the same one military communities use with "grunt," "jarhead," "squid": take the thing meant to diminish you and carry it differently. Not to neutralize the contempt. To signal it didn't land.
2.6.3 — "How Rome Sold Citizenship"
https://pewpewhq.com/trng/gruntgod-263
Claudius Lysias — the Roman tribune who protects Psaul in Acts 21–23 — almost certainly bought his citizenship. His name is the tell: Greek/Syrian family name, Claudian prefix. Messalina's side business. He tells Psaul directly: "I acquired this freedom for a large sum of money." What that means for his character is interesting. Newly minted citizens who know what status cost tend to be more careful about it, not less. Lysias listens to his NCO, acts on intelligence from a teenager, and writes an honest after-action report that admits he nearly had a Roman citizen flogged. That's not insecurity. That's leadership.
2.6.4 — "God Doesn't Respect Birth Order"
https://pewpewhq.com/trng/gruntgod-264
Primogeniture — the oldest gets the most — was the near-universal default in the ancient world. The Bible spends an unusual amount of time overturning it. Isaac over Ishmael. Jacob over Esau. Joseph over his ten older brothers. Moses over Aaron and Miriam. David, youngest of eight. The pattern is long enough to be a theological argument: God is less interested in where you started than in what you're willing to risk. The darker reading is that entitlement corrupts — Cain expected to be first because he'd always been first, and when he wasn't, he killed the person who surpassed him. That has things to say about birthright citizenship debates that I don't think either side of that conversation is ready to hear.
2.6.5 — "The Invisible Ruck"
https://pewpewhq.com/trng/gruntgod-265
Peggy McIntosh's invisible knapsack, inverted: what does veteran privilege look like when civilian bias is the context? Over fifteen years I averaged more than one soldier or veteran per month coming to me privately about mistreatment by civilian institutions — teachers, pastors, professors, therapists — who used veteran status as a diagnostic label instead of engaging with what the veteran was actually saying. The church's problem with military families isn't primarily theological. The theology is complicated but workable. The problem is cultural: the civilian church has outsourced its understanding of military life to its most anxious members, who project their discomfort with violence onto the veterans in the pews. This piece says so directly.
What's next: GruntGod 2.7
This week, one post per weekday at 0800 Pacific. The chapter is George and Martyrdom — which is exactly as interesting as it sounds. The patron saint of England, the dragon that may or may not be metaphorical, and what it means to die for something in a tradition that keeps trying to domesticate its own martyrs.
If you've been waiting for me to get back on the horse: I'm on the horse.
More when I am closer to being on track with 🎙️ Fightin Words as well (I'm two weeks behind, for those who're counting)