What can be more interesting to Americans? Even – or maybe especially – to American Christians!
Read on. We might not get to the bottom of the thing , but we’ll get somewhere!
Let’s start with a round of kumbaya…
Mom and Dad raised me as a nominal Christian back when America was great. And let me tell ya, when America was great? We worked our asses off for pennies. My dad was a teacher, and my parents wanted a pool. Today, people just apply for 14 credit cards, then max them all out and go bankrupt. But that wasn’t available to the peasants of old. Both got second jobs. There wasn’t any question when I grew up: get educated, get a job, work hard, and save a few bucks.
I became a Christian and discovered the Christian musician Keith Green. He was a little weird, even for Christians. At one point, he rented houses for homeless people to live in. Then he started giving his albums away. For free! Now, this wasn’t a guy busking on the street corner for a few bucks a day. Nope. This guy was out-selling almost all other Christian artists. But at some point, he felt guilty charging for music he felt G had given him. He wanted people to play his records and see him in concert – I certainly wanted to – but this was a ministry, not a money machine. He felt horrible charging admission to concerts for the same reason. Like paying to go to church. He bought his contract from his record company and started ‘selling’ albums for ‘whatever you could afford.’ And if you couldn’t afford it, he sent you an album for free.
Friends and enemies all agree: my weakest points might be optimism and naivety, but this ‘pay what you can’ has always appealed deeply to me.
I try to follow Keith’s lead in this…mostly. I sell books on Amazon and send essays and stories off to publishers, who politely send me money. I get a great kick out of publishing essays, and, regarding Amazon, I’m basically lazy and have almost no interest in the business of selling and packing books myself.
But I do things here that I want people to use and enjoy. I get emails daily about how to monetize the site and make loads of money. It has an appeal. I recommend stuff, too, and am an Amazon Affiliate. But, I only recommend things I have bought myself and believe them to be useful (though I do use the library for books). Other writers and sites have tiered memberships: I don’t.
I don’t cater to advertising either. I’m rebellious enough that I don’t want someone dictating what I have to do or say. Even for hard cash.
My workaround is to encourage you to use the donation page. If you find value here, and if you like what I do, and if I help lead you in a direction you want to go, then please drop whatever you would like into the box.
Thanks.