There are blog members who would love to come to the lecture I’m giving as a fundraiser for Ukraine on Sunday, but simply can’t afford the donation (for the information about the event itself, see below). And so this post is for TWO groups of people.
- If you yourself can afford to come and would like to donate a “ticket” or several tickets to the event for someone or someones who cannot, please click here to do so.
- If you can NOT afford the donation amount but would like to come to the lecture click here to register and on the Donation Amount, simply enter $0 or the amount you are able to give.
The blog is not meant to be exclusive but to be open to all. Many thanks to all for being on it and supporting our causes.
Note: for those who wish to donate, but can’t attend the lecture live, we will be recording the the talk and will make that available to all donors.
Here now is the original announcement again.
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Most of us are feeling depressed, frustrated, anxious, stressed, fearful, and helpless in the face of what is happening in Ukraine. Even though there is nothing we as individuals can do to halt the Russian advance and is horrific consequences, we can at least do something to help those in the throes of the humanitarian crisis.
I would like to do a fundraiser to provide funds for one of the great charities dealing with the situation, one that the blog has always supported.. We will send all the money we raise directly to Care International. They are doing fantastic work in the crisis and desperately need the funding.
Our event will be on Sunday March 20, 4:00-5:30 Eastern Time. It will be a Zoom lecture that I give on “Who Killed Jesus? And Why?” It will involve a 45 minute lecture and a 45 minute Q&A. We are asking all attendees for a minimum donation of $45 dollars.
If you choose to come, please consider giving more — as much as you can and wish. We would like this to be the largest fundraiser we have ever had.
I will personally match the total we bring in up to $10,000.
As to the topic: Throughout history Jews have borne the brunt for Jesus’ death, even though it was the Romans who crucified him. Why would a Roman official order his execution? Who really was at fault? How would we know? Are our sources reliable? Are they consistent? Was it Jesus’ plan all along? If so, why would anyone be at fault?
These are among the questions I”ll be addressing. I hope you can come, and please be generous. To register, click here.
Thanks, Bart. I won’t be able to make the event but I donated to the cause. I very much appreciate your scholarship and your willingness to share and teach those of us who find these topics interesting. I very much more appreciate your commitment to giving and charity.
On the topic of charity, I understand that we don’t have a lot of information from ancient sources that Christian charity was a strong reason for conversions. I understand that. I sense, however, that the charitable impulse did contribute significantly to the rise of Christianity. I don’t have any citations, just a hunch, that the organization required of Christian communities to collect, store and distribute items to the poor created and advanced an organization that eventually became the institutionalized church – an institution that pagans could not match, that formed a basis for growth and evangelism and provided stability in times of chaos. Charity itself did not contribute to conversions but the ways in which charity was accomplished might have been instrumental in the eventual survival and growth of the movement.
I don’t think charity was a significant factor in converting people. It *may* have been, but there’s no evidence of it, even though scholars sometimes claim it was. I deal with the issue in my book the Triumph of Christianity.