I would like to take a brief pause to take the temperature of the blog and to get some feedback from you about how you think it’s going.   There are some general issues and one specific concern.    If you’re not interested in responding to the general questions, please do skip to the end, to the specific concern, and weigh in with your opinion. FIRST, THE GENERAL ISSUES.   The blog continues to grow and to raise significant money for charity – which, as you know, is its raison d’être.   Of course I enjoy communicating information, knowledge, views, theories, opinions, and perspectives on early Christianity – from the historical Jesus to the writings of Paul to the early Gospels to the formation of the New Testament canon to the surviving manuscripts to the early Christian apocrypha to, well, to on and on and on.   And for users of the blog, *this* is the ultimate point.   I blog, you pay, we donate, and everyone’s happy. But that happiness is rooted in how well the communication is going.  And [...]

And so, we have come to the end of another year.  Most of us will spend at least a bit of time just now reflecting on our lives and our past year.  I’d like to take a minute to reflect, as well, on the year we’ve had on the blog. My sense is that the blog has been and still is going strong.   This past year I have made something like 300 separate posts – so nearly six a week.   Almost always these posts are around 1000 words – sometimes more, but rarely less.   Most of the posts are written fresh every day, though often I do post something of relevance that I have previously published. I’m starting to find that I want to post on something that I’ve already posted on, but by and large I have resisted the urge.  I do think, though, as time goes on, that it won’t matter much if I cover similar ground to what I dealt with, say, two years ago.   There are people who join the blog [...]

Thanks to the incredible generosity of members of the blog, I am happy to announce that there are a limited number of free one-year memberships available.   These have been donated for a single purpose: to allow those who cannot afford the annual membership fee to participate on the blog for a year.   I will assign these memberships strictly on the honor system: if you truly cannot afford the membership fee, but very much want to have full access to the blog, then please contact me. Do NOT reply here, on the blog, as a comment.   Send me a separate email, privately, at [email protected].   In your email, let me know your situation (why you would like to take advantage of this offer) and provide me with the following information: 1)      Your first and last name. 2)      Your preferred personal email. 3)      Your preferred user name (no spaces). 4)      Your preferred password (should be 8 or more characters, no spaces).   The donors will remain anonymous, but here let me publicly extend my heartfelt thanks for such [...]

‘Tis the season!   It’s hard to believe, but the holidays are upon us again.  And I want to open up a holiday giving option that can help out people who really want to be on the blog but cannot afford the membership fees. As many of you know, last year, thanks to a number of generous donors, we pulled this off in a big way.  It happened in two stages.   Two anonymous donors had provided some funds to pay for memberships for a few people who wanted to be on the blog but because of personal circumstances, could not afford the membership fees.   I put out the offer on my Facebook page, asking if anyone was in that boat, and within twenty minutes I had thirty requests –all from people who were eager to join but simply did not have the means to do so otherwise.  I had to shut down the offer nearly as soon as I made it.   This made me suspect that there were a lot more people out there like [...]

  I am happy to say that the membership forum – where people can interact with each others’ ideas, thoughts, claims, arguments, and perspectives directly, without any interference from me – is going very well.   We started off slowing, with just a couple of people posting questions, comments, and responses.  It slowly has been building.  And it is getting to be more and more every day.  I want to encourage you to consider contributing – and to tell others about it as a way to increase membership on the blog. (As you know, blog membership is, for me, what this entire enterprise is about, because I do the blog as a way of raising money for charity.  As far as I’m concerned, the more money raised, the better we’re doing.   Please encourage friends, colleagues, family members, neighbors, and others to join!) It is very easy to participate in the Forum.   Simply click the tab from the homepage that says, yes, “Membership Forum.”  And go from there. To this point the posts and responses have followed [...]