As many of you know, my new book, Love Thy Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West, will be published on March 24th. I have spent the last few years immersed in researching a profound shift that occurred in antiquity. In the Greco-Roman world, ethical obligations were largely confined to one’s family, friends, and local community. The idea that you had a moral duty to help those in need who were not part of your family or circle of friends or potential friends, regardless of ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, or anything else, was simply not on the radar screen.

That changed with the teachings of Jesus and the subsequent spread of the early Christian movement, which introduced to the world the revolutionary concept that everyone, regardless of their origin or status, is deserving of care, compassion, medical attention, and the resources to survive..

To celebrate the release of this book, I wanted to do something that takes this historical concept and puts it into immediate, tangible practice.

Today, we are launching our “Sponsor a Stranger” campaign.

The two-pronged mission of this blog has always been to make rigorous historical scholarship accessible to as many people as possible and to raise funds for charity in doing so.  This campaign does both.

To make a true impact, we have set a goal to raise $25,000 for Doctors Without Borders by the end of March.

Here is how it works:

We are asking those of you who have the means to consider a donation of $30.01. (Please end your donation in $.01 so we know it is intended for this campaign.)

Your $30.01 will do two very important things simultaneously:

  1. It will fully sponsor a Bronze-level blog membership for a stranger for one year—someone who has a deep desire to learn but simply cannot afford the subscription right now.

  2. 100% of your donation will go directly to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).  Because the blog subscriptions cost us nothing to fulfill (we take out no overhead), every single cent you give will be directed to providing emergency medical care to vulnerable strangers across the globe.

If you cannot give the full $30.01, please know that gifts of any size (with an .01!) are immensely appreciated. We will pool all donations under $30 together to fund as many additional “Stranger” memberships as possible. Every single dollar counts toward opening educational access and saving lives.

To thank you for your generosity, I have put together a few special incentives:

  • For ALL donors (any amount): You will receive a beautifully formatted, exclusive Love Thy Stranger Reading Guide, which we will send out in April to accompany your reading.

  • For donors of $100.01 or more: You are invited to register for a Webinar and Q&A with me on Sunday April 19th at 3pm Eastern. In honor of our support for Doctors Without Borders, the topic of this webinar will be “Healthcare in Antiquity.” We’ll explore how the ancients understood disease, healing, and the duty to care for the sick.

  • For the first 25 donors of $500.01 or more: I will send you a personally signed, hardcover copy of Love Thy Stranger as soon as it publishes. (Please note: Due to shipping constraints, this is limited to US addresses only).  

This community never ceases to amaze me with its generosity and its commitment to learning. By participating in this campaign, you are helping to share knowledge with those who seek it, while providing life-saving medical care to those who desperately need it.

To make your donation:

Questions? Send them to Jen at [email protected] and she will be happy to assist.

Thank you, as always, for your support, your curiosity, and your willingness to help those in need.

— Bart