All aboard the substack ... bandwagon
OK, I caved. Let me explain why.
I don’t know about you, but whenever I see someone has started up a new Substack I tend to roll my eyes and think “oh great, there’s another one.” Substack has become like a blog in the early 2000s - everyone (and their pets) seem to have one. So, why have I decided to create one?
Over the last few months I’ve been thinking a lot about which online platforms I want to use. Or, more accurately, which online platforms I don’t want to use. I am concerned about two things:
Free speech. This should be fundamental to any platform. Free speech is not a minor issue. Over the last few years, Big Tech platforms have had an extremely poor record on free speech, and I have fallen foul of YouTube’s draconian “community rules” on more than one occasion. I’m almost certain that YouTube are doing something funny with the Sacred Musings YouTube channel - however many people subscribe / unsubscribe, it always seems to go back to the same number.
Business model. As the saying goes, “if the price is free, you are the product”. I am increasingly concerned that the proliferation of ‘free’ internet services has not been a good thing for the world. In particular, I don’t like the way that YouTube seems to be pushing more and more adverts onto you when you watch, unless you pay a ridiculous monthly price. (At the time of writing, £16.99 a month for YouTube Premium. Seriously?!) I don’t like the fact that YouTube seem to treat you as an ant, unless you’re one of the big guys with thousands of subscribers. It’s not right.
I believe Substack is, at the very least, an improvement on both of those things.
How Substack helps
Firstly, it seems that Substack has a greater commitment to free speech than other Big Tech platforms. A lot of the people I am aware of who are involved in the ‘truth community’ (for want of a better word) seem to publish on Substack without interference.
Secondly, I like Substack’s business model: they do provide the service for free, and you can make your work freely available. However, the idea is to provide an easy and simple way for people to become paying subscribers. In other words, it’s not primarily ad-supported (and therefore a way of harvesting your personal data).
Additionally, I like the way that it connects subscribing with your work. At the moment, I have a GiveSendGo account - but that doesn’t really connect what I publish with giving. Substack brings the elements together - if you like what I do here, you can subscribe and give.
I believe this is closer to the Biblical way of doing things. In my Bible reading just this morning I read these verses:
Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.
Galatians 6:6
Which is similar to what Paul says elsewhere, e.g. 1 Corinthians 9:14, “the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.” It seems to me that Substack brings those things together better: you are paying for the work that I do, rather than giving to support me in general. Although those two things are similar, I believe they are not the same.
At the same time, I do appreciate that not everyone has the wherewithal to be able to support me financially, so I will continue to make this freely available. (I will investigate doing extra things for paying subscribers, but I haven’t really thought that through just yet). I know that there are a whole lot of people on substack, all asking for money - and I don’t want to add to the burden! If you already support me via GSG, there is no need to add an extra subscription to Substack.
What’s going to happen to the podcast
I am going to move the podcast here, however if you are already subscribed in your podcast provider you shouldn’t notice a difference. It should simply update to the new one. I am not sure whether I will continue to upload to YouTube, I haven’t yet investigated uploading video to Substack.
What I can say for sure: if you pop your email address into the box below and subscribe here, you will be notified whenever a new episode goes live. Also, I will update with written content from time to time (as I did on my blog).
Thanks so much for bearing with me, I know it’s been a lot of changes lately but I hope that you can understand! And I hope that the disruption will be minimal to my existing subscribers, but potentially allowing Sacred Musings to reach more people.