We've been going for a year

Well, it’s been almost 12 months to the day since I started a newsletter about religion online. It’s true; nobody really asked for this, but I decided to do it anyway because I wished it existed for me.

In a way, this newsletter is a proof of concept, trying to show there is an audience for content about religion and popular culture. Lots of people think about religion all the time, and lots of people use the internet, but there are only a handful of people making content about religion online who aren’t trying to save souls or whatever. So I thought I’d give it a go.

Here’s the actual numbers: At the time of writing I have 165 subscribers, plus me. Not huge numbers of people, but honestly? I’m pretty happy with how it’s going considering I’m doing this in my spare time. Also at the outset I never intended to do this every week but I totally did, so I’ve surprised and impressed myself, if not anybody else. Each post takes between two and five hours to put together, which I do in the evenings after work.

I got above 100 subscribers before the end of last year and I still seem to be on a steady upward trend, which is encouraging. In the graph above, the first big jump in August 2021 is when my brother-in-law recommended me to his thousands of Facebook friends, and the other in February 2022 is when James Hennessy linked to my newsletter in The Terminal (which had a bigger effect on subscribers than being linked in an ABC news story lmao).

I think it was John Green (or was it Hank?) who said a small, passionate audience is better than a large, casual one. It’s the theory that drives subscription sites like Patreon (and Substack) and these sites have encouraged a greater diversity of high-quality, niche content online. You don’t need to do huge numbers, just have a critical mass of people who care enough about what you do that they’ll give you a few bucks a month.

I don’t know if that’s what I’m doing here, but maybe! I have no intention to go paid for the time being, but my average open rate has been steady at around 55% to 60% every week, which seems to be the upper end of average for Substack. That’s to be expected of a small audience because proportionally a single open counts more, but I’ve been surprised by the range of people who have found value in what I’m doing, so maybe it’ll keep growing. Anyway, I’ll do another year and see how we go.

As I said, I’m not doing paid subscriptions, but if you want to help me out, please recommend me to a friend. Or if you have a publication or a podcast, I’m happy to be a guest. I even have thoughts about things other than religion and shitposts, would you believe!

Thanks for reading. I have really loved doing this newsletter. If you have any feedback (including constructive criticism!) I’d love to hear it. And if you have a strange post or a religion/pop culture crossover you want me to talk about, drop me a comment or an email.

This edition was written to the sounds of rosary girl lofi

My favourite Chick Tract artist has died

I briefly wrote about Chick Tracts last edition, and since then I have learned that Fred Carter, the little-known Black artist behind many Chick Tracts, has died. Before now, I didn’t even know Jack Chick had a long-time collaborator because most of Fred’s work has gone uncredited.

Christianity Today has a fascinating obituary covering the man and his art.

As it turns out, most of my favourite tracts were probably drawn by Fred, including Darkest Dungeons, which is an absolute classic. The way he drew people is so evocative. I was unaware of his colour work, which is stunning.

Make no mistake: Chick Publications has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre and much of what they have made isn’t fit for reproduction. Still, as cultural objects I think these artworks are fascinating little windows into what is an alien worldview for most people.

Fergus Butler-Gallie tries VR church

You might recall Fergus Butler-Gallie as the Church of England priest who passionately defended hetrodox hot cross buns and identified a job listing for a chaplain at Sexey’s Hospital.

In the Church Times article ‘My worship alongside a sexified fox’, he has given metaverse church a go. He writes of one virtual reality Catholic service:

Unfortunately, the camera angles were a bit wonky, swaying either over the heads of the congregation or underneath their feet. I switched over when, during one of the latter phases, I was privy to the accidental upskirting of a cardinal.

I assume the technology can only improve.

A universally funny David Bentley Hart joke

It was Mr T’s birthday

Maybe it’ll be a surprise to learn, but Mr T — yes, of “I pity the fool!” fame — is a deeply Christian man and tweets about it constantly. It was also his birthday yesterday.

If you follow him on Twitter, he tweets a Bible verse or a prayer every day. He also stopped wearing his trademark gold jewlery after helping with the cleanup after Hurricane Katrina saying,

As a Christian, when I saw other people lose their lives and lose their land and property ... I felt that it would be a sin before God for me to continue wearing my gold. I felt it would be insensitive and disrespectful to the people who lost everything, so I stopped wearing my gold.

Even though I am certain he and I would disagree sharply on many things, I love him very much and I wish him a very happy birthday. He also sometimes posts fire retro content like this.

He is also a fan of the US Olympic curling team!

Someone alert PETA immediately

Finally, do angels wear eyeshadow?

Some extra links, just for you

• “When He comes through on that prayer request”
• After his election loss, former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison “headed to church, where he wept as he read passages from the bible about failure”
• “me in hell mansplaining NFTs”
• “AI is infested with demons”