I want to offer thanks to everyone who offers financial support to this blog and its associated email newsletter. I remain incredibly grateful to those who have contributed throughout the years via the Paypal donation system. Some have given one-time donations while others have set up ongoing monthly payments to help cover operations and labor costs.
I also want to thank those who, while not donating financially, have given their time to help with this website and its associated newsletter: the proof-readers, peer-reviewers, dialogue and research partners, and supportive friends. This website really is a team effort.
Many people don’t realize how expensive it is to run a website. From hosting fees to hardware to relationship management software to research supplies – it all adds up.
This is not a fundraising letter. But I do want to make clear that this ministry remains a side gig that is mainly funded by my day job editing and ghost-writing. As donations increase, I will be able to offer more content advancing the unique mission of this ministry, including content I currently can’t afford to produce such as podcasting, book and movie reviews, responses to critics, travel journaling, physical newsletter with writing updates, and in-depth reading logs.
It may seem odd to refer to this publication ministry as “unique.” Aren’t there already countless websites, newsletters, and blogs that put out culturally relevant content from a Christian perspective? Yes there are, and while such ministries are often adjacent to my own, I’m trying to do things a little differently based on my own skills, vision, and sense of calling. For years it was not clear that I even had a unique mission with my website and its associated newsletter. But over the years my approach has crystalized, and so has the sense of mission to what I write.
Through dialogue with readers I have come to understand that this is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill space for cultural commentary, apologetics, and worldview analysis. Rather than trying to fortify readers in the standard tropes of our too-noisy cultural discourse, my goal has been to encourage a type of critical thinking that enables readers to view familiar issues in a new light, with increased thoughtfulness, attention, and curiosity. While I frequently address controversial subjects, including ethical and political debates, my aim is not to advance a particular ideology or political agenda. Rather, I have tried to create a space where everyone—regardless of their background or prior beliefs—can be inspired to look at the world with increased thoughtfulness, attention, curiosity and (God willing) intellectual virtue.
Many bloggers write mostly to give themselves a forum/clearing house for everything they happen to be thinking about. There is certainly a place for that, but my vision is different. I don’t want my blog to be about me, but about ideas, and not simply ideas considered through the lens of opinion, but ideas and issues assess on the basis of well-researched consideration of all sides. I see what I do as sort of ‘investigative journalism’ into the world of cultural and spiritual ideas from fresh vantagepoints that are not generally part of the public forum of ideas.
Again, none of this would be possible without the support of my readers and benefactors. Once again, thank you!