In honor of Ash Wednesday, and 4/20, surrounded by pagan celebrations of Easter traditions, the seder plate’s reminder of the epoch journey of the Israelites, I have a Moses expert on to talk about his incredibly thought-provoking book, Moses and the Death of Heresy.

J.M.S. Beale is a lifelong student of religion, both academically and in religious communities. His degree is in Comparative Religion, and his focus was on the culture and history of ancient Israel. His dreams of becoming the pastor of a church were dashed when he realized that he could not defend or endorse the use of power in his Christian communities. Since then he has become a devoted ally of the LGBTQ+ community. His book Moses and the Death of Heresy is an exposé of how power is fundamentally attached to violence in the legacy of Moses. The book gives value to the lives that were taken by this ancient aggression, the trauma of the survivors, and gives modern readers a roadmap for how to escape such uses of power in their own spiritual lives.

So buckle up buttercups and get ready to open your mind to the possibility that maybe Moses wasn’t all he’s cracked up to be!