From Matlock to Theological Investigator

When my partner and I watched The Secret, a double feature of the Matlock Series Season Five recently, I was astounded how one can be inspired by a television series to start a blog. In the double feature, attorney Ben Matlock is defending his favorite blues singer who has been indicted for a murder he did not commit. Yet, the situation becomes more delicate when Matlock finds out that his favorite blues singer is also a compulsive gambler. His friend is supposed to have killed the club owner who also was the blues singer's bookie. During the course of the story, Matlock and his private eye unveiled a secret that the club owner was blackmailing his best buddies from college who had robbed several valuable paintings from the local art museum, while they were officially playing football at the college football stadium that was located just a stone throw away from the art museum.

During the entire span of the double feature I found myself being less captivated by the story's progression, but rather by the role of the private investigator. Conrad McMasters always played a vital part in discovering who really killed the club owner and how the art theft had occurred a long time ago. However, he himself was never involved in any of the immoral activities that happened. In some way, Hudson was a seeker of truth amidst the people who tried with all their means to keep the real flow of events from surfacing anywhere.

This thought brought me to the idea to labeling my blog Theological Investigator. Certainly, Conrad McMasters' seeking for truth is a very idealized concept in the field of a theological endeavor and it falls short to separate every idea, every dogma or the endless paradise of denominational differentiation into categories of right and wrong. Equally, the term Theological Investigator is not meant to promote the one and only way to God, as if the Spanish Inquisition was still well and alive! To the contrary: To me a Theological Investigator observes theology, church dogmas, and faith traditions outside of its power structures. Thereby he or she tries to present and evaluate questions of theology and church matters from his or her own point of view. Within this framework, boundaries between denominations and faith traditions have to be succumbed out of mutual respect. This is what I intend to accomplish with this blog. Whether I reach this goal rests upon the eye of the beholder. Yet, I will not cease to make my point, even in a world that believes one modern prophet is to be right over the next door believer who lets difference stand for the sake of one's individual right of religious liberty!