I did so in the first place because several readers have encouraged me to consider adding an option to permit readers to donate. Because I didn't begin this blog and haven't continued working at it with the thought of (monetary) profit, I've never followed through on these suggestions before now. I blog here for the joy of blogging--of giving freely, of interacting with a community of readers and other bloggers, of benefiting from what I learn as I interact with readers and blog friends. And I intend to keep on blogging with those goals, regardless.
At the same time, I've begun to recognize that any support anyone might feel inclined to give to me as I blog surely wouldn't be unwelcome--if only as a way of helping me to buy time to continue reading and writing daily. I have probably not made as clear as I should have to readers that the primary reason I'm able to spend the time I do spend blogging here most days is that my partner Steve makes this possible by supporting both of us through a full-time job.
He does this generously and he wants to do so. When I've considered setting the blog aside, he has encouraged me to keep at it. Because we're both trained theologians with doctorates, but have been unable to find any place at all teaching theology in Catholic institutions, Steve sees my chance to write here as an opportunity for both of us to continue our thwarted theological vocations in a new and unexpected way that allows us to go through doors of theological dialogue the institutional church hasn't wanted to open for us as a gay couple. And it goes without saying that everything I share on this blog presupposes Steve's and my constant, ongoing conversation about theological, political, and cultural issues in our own life together.
For my part, to add to our combined income, I do take odd jobs when they come my way. These have included in the past year or so grant-writing and genealogical research. None of these ventures provides large amounts of income. But they provide welcome small amounts to supplement the single salary on which we both live insofar as we're able.
And they do take time and energy from the blog, when they happen to come along--as does the book-writing project in which I'm currently involved, which is not likely to be any kind of money-making venture, however, and which is another job I'm doing for the joy of it and not with the notion of profit. Scholarly books just don't make money, usually.
In the past few weeks, as the Catholic bishops in the U.S. have stepped up their increasingly overt right-wing politicking, and as leading American Catholic publications and leading American Catholic journalists and bloggers have, one after the other, lent their support to this right-wing politicking, I've been increasingly aware of the struggle some of the rest of us in the Catholic theological, journalistic, and blog communities have to make our voices heard. This struggle is often compounded by our marginality--by the fact that we live outside the geographic and cultural circles of power inhabited by many of the Catholic journalists and bloggers whose voices instantly go far and wide simply because of who these folks are and where they live.
And it's often compounded by economic marginality, as well: we don't have at our disposal, many of us Catholic bloggers who want to keep a dialogue space open for progressive theological and political options in our church, anywhere near the economic level of support our centrist colleagues enjoy. Those colleagues usually work for well-funded journals or think-tanks that buy them time to read, write, interact with others, and transmit their opinions in print to wide audiences. They also not uncommonly have editorial and other forms of assistance as they write.
All of this to say: I've decided this week--and yes, in part due to my awareness of how steep the odds against progressive Catholic voices are in a church whose powerful centrist intellectual and media commentariat all too often walks lockstep with the powerful political and religious right--that any financial support any readers might want to offer this blog would be welcome. And this is why I've just added a donation button.
I am not posting this notice to invite donations or in any way to encourage people to consider donations. I'm posting it simply to explain why I've added the donation button, which some readers may have seen pop up on the blog in the past day. I'm posting it, too, because the donation button is not yet working, since the Google system apparently takes some time to confirm this and that piece of information I submitted to get the donation system working. And I wanted any reader who may decide to click on the button to know that Google is apparently working to set the donation mechanisms up, and it won't be working until the "paperwork" has been processed.
(I chose Google as the venue for any possible donations, by the way, solely because the blog is already hosted by Google, and it seemed easier to go this route than to try to figure out how to import another system onto the blog as I added the donation option.)
Please know that I value all readers' support of this blog of any kind whatsoever--most of all, I value your comments and your notes of encouragement (or [gentle] chastisement) to me--and I am not making a pitch for money. I feel exceptionally embarrassed to talk about money, period, and I suspect I've shared far more information about Steve's and my circumstances than you want or need. I am not in the least interested in blogging to make money, and have been concerned that I might cheapen or dilute the blog's effectiveness by adding a donation button (though I certainly do not criticize other bloggers who accept financial contributions).
And so that's the story of the donation button some of you may have noticed here today. I also decided yesterday to try to link the blog to Facebook--again, in a step to try to overcome some of that marginalization against which we small, independent bloggers in faraway and insignificant places struggle as we try to make our voices heard in conversations that seem important to us, where the voices of more powerful and well-situated players call the shots. Though the conversations and their outcome affect everyone in the entire human community.
He does this generously and he wants to do so. When I've considered setting the blog aside, he has encouraged me to keep at it. Because we're both trained theologians with doctorates, but have been unable to find any place at all teaching theology in Catholic institutions, Steve sees my chance to write here as an opportunity for both of us to continue our thwarted theological vocations in a new and unexpected way that allows us to go through doors of theological dialogue the institutional church hasn't wanted to open for us as a gay couple. And it goes without saying that everything I share on this blog presupposes Steve's and my constant, ongoing conversation about theological, political, and cultural issues in our own life together.
For my part, to add to our combined income, I do take odd jobs when they come my way. These have included in the past year or so grant-writing and genealogical research. None of these ventures provides large amounts of income. But they provide welcome small amounts to supplement the single salary on which we both live insofar as we're able.
And they do take time and energy from the blog, when they happen to come along--as does the book-writing project in which I'm currently involved, which is not likely to be any kind of money-making venture, however, and which is another job I'm doing for the joy of it and not with the notion of profit. Scholarly books just don't make money, usually.
In the past few weeks, as the Catholic bishops in the U.S. have stepped up their increasingly overt right-wing politicking, and as leading American Catholic publications and leading American Catholic journalists and bloggers have, one after the other, lent their support to this right-wing politicking, I've been increasingly aware of the struggle some of the rest of us in the Catholic theological, journalistic, and blog communities have to make our voices heard. This struggle is often compounded by our marginality--by the fact that we live outside the geographic and cultural circles of power inhabited by many of the Catholic journalists and bloggers whose voices instantly go far and wide simply because of who these folks are and where they live.
And it's often compounded by economic marginality, as well: we don't have at our disposal, many of us Catholic bloggers who want to keep a dialogue space open for progressive theological and political options in our church, anywhere near the economic level of support our centrist colleagues enjoy. Those colleagues usually work for well-funded journals or think-tanks that buy them time to read, write, interact with others, and transmit their opinions in print to wide audiences. They also not uncommonly have editorial and other forms of assistance as they write.
All of this to say: I've decided this week--and yes, in part due to my awareness of how steep the odds against progressive Catholic voices are in a church whose powerful centrist intellectual and media commentariat all too often walks lockstep with the powerful political and religious right--that any financial support any readers might want to offer this blog would be welcome. And this is why I've just added a donation button.
I am not posting this notice to invite donations or in any way to encourage people to consider donations. I'm posting it simply to explain why I've added the donation button, which some readers may have seen pop up on the blog in the past day. I'm posting it, too, because the donation button is not yet working, since the Google system apparently takes some time to confirm this and that piece of information I submitted to get the donation system working. And I wanted any reader who may decide to click on the button to know that Google is apparently working to set the donation mechanisms up, and it won't be working until the "paperwork" has been processed.
(I chose Google as the venue for any possible donations, by the way, solely because the blog is already hosted by Google, and it seemed easier to go this route than to try to figure out how to import another system onto the blog as I added the donation option.)
Please know that I value all readers' support of this blog of any kind whatsoever--most of all, I value your comments and your notes of encouragement (or [gentle] chastisement) to me--and I am not making a pitch for money. I feel exceptionally embarrassed to talk about money, period, and I suspect I've shared far more information about Steve's and my circumstances than you want or need. I am not in the least interested in blogging to make money, and have been concerned that I might cheapen or dilute the blog's effectiveness by adding a donation button (though I certainly do not criticize other bloggers who accept financial contributions).
And so that's the story of the donation button some of you may have noticed here today. I also decided yesterday to try to link the blog to Facebook--again, in a step to try to overcome some of that marginalization against which we small, independent bloggers in faraway and insignificant places struggle as we try to make our voices heard in conversations that seem important to us, where the voices of more powerful and well-situated players call the shots. Though the conversations and their outcome affect everyone in the entire human community.
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