Why was it so shocking? I’ve known about GunPowder Joe for a long time. I’ve been learning more about him since I moved back… I’ve used him as illustration many a time. But there was something in the way they told the story that made me think. Wait there was this major thinker. A wild and wonderful Heretic and he lived right here in this River Valley.

We had one Heretic. We can have more. We can be more. If you’ve studied heresy at all… having gone to seminary, you can’t avoid it, but there were a lot of times you sat and thought, pretty sure that’s what I think… (ok, there were some pretty goofy ones, too.) Most of what I found to be great heresies were those that included thinking, giving back, co-creating. Such heresies are dangerous to top-down religions. They put responsibility in the hands of the hoi-polloi…

But to be a heretic. To be a Heretic for Love, for Peace. It is in us and we are needed.