Regarding the Evangelical Outpost, a Letter from the Editor

Other — By on September 4, 2008 at 1:12 pm

When Joe contacted myself and a number of my peers about assuming responsibility for the Evangelical Outpost, my first feeling was one of humility. Though I was sad to hear that he was going to be pulling back from Evangelical Outpost, I was humbled by the honor of being among the individuals whom he trusted to continue the legacy of this great site.
Like many of you, I first met Joe through Evangelical Outpost. I became acquainted with his blog as a result of my work with GodblogCon. When John Mark Reynolds and Matt Anderson were introducing me to the Godblogosphere, they pointed me to Joe Carter as an example of a quintessential Godblogger. I appreciated Joe’s humor and the caliber of thought that went into each post at Evangelical Outpost. When I met Joe at GodblogCon in October of 2006, I met a man who was every bit the humorous, insightful, and authentic person his blog entries suggested him to be.


Humor, insight, and authenticity. I believe these are the qualities that set Evangelical Outpost apart. These are the qualities that keep us reading. Joe’s blogs here at Evangelical Outpost reflected a deep appreciation for the ideas and symbols that other pundits and bloggers seemed to make hollow through thoughtless repetition. “Old” arguments seemed fresh and new. “Traditional values” were given a definite form, crafted through carefully considered arguments. Cultural trends were usefully tied to their roots. Even humor graphs and song chart memes were given a place in the ordered universe of the Evangelical Outpost.
Today, the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University assumes editorial responsibility of the site, and in the coming weeks, we look forward to sharing with you all our vision for the project. However, we want to make clear our intention to maintain the quality of site to which we all have become accustomed. We covet you, the readers, and want to continue to foster the community that you all and Joe have created. We appreciate your bearing with us through this time of transition. We are very excited about what the future holds for the Evangelical Outpost and we look forward to proceeding into that future with you.
Warm Regards,
Dustin Steeve
Senior Editor – Evangelical Outpost
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  • Tom

    I know that many, many, many of us will be so very sad to lose the ‘father’ of this site. What a wonderful job he’s done! You must be particularly wonderful as well to be entrusted with carrying on this excellent tradition. (And I hope that you’ll continue the ‘Thirty-three things’ series!)

  • Jerry Thornton

    I got a fantastic amount of life/thought/blessing from Joe’s material…each morning it was there with my coffee to set me on my way. Good luck on this new enterprise…….

  • zev goldman

    Very good news.
    In the furture, please don’t use the term myself when me works so much better.

  • Dan

    Zev,
    Sorry, but there is no way that ‘me’ works “so much better” than ‘myself’ in this context.
    In the future, please leave subtle grammatical preferences to youself.
    Dustin,
    The ‘myself’ works perfectly!

  • ex-preacher

    I’ve got to agree with Zev. It should read “When Joe contacted me . . . ”
    From DrGrammar.org:
    Trying even harder to avoid the lowly me, many people will substitute myself as in ‘The suspect uttered epithets at Officer O’Leary and myself.’ Myself is no better than I as an object. Myself is not a sort of all-purpose intensive form of me or I . Use myself only when you have used I earlier in the same sentence: ‘I am not particularly fond of goat cheese myself’” (Brians, Common Errors in English Usage).

  • pentamom

    I’m with the anti-myself brigade, but I understand the discomfort with “me” in this particular context. (The discomfort with using “me” at all has to be gotten over, but it does ring awkward here.)
    So, as usual, the solution is, when in doubt, rewords
    “When Joe contacted me along with…”
    I think that would solve it. “Me and” sounds jarring, because we’re told from kindergarten on up not to say “me and Mary,” and that’s almost always right. Remove the evil word “and,” and the uncomfortable feeling goes away.

  • Alfred E. Neumann

    As for myself, it bugs myself when writers and speakers incorrectly use ‘myself’ instead of the objectively correct ‘me.’ Of course, no one cares what bugs me. So I’ll simply agree and thank Pentamom for identifying the true source of the awkwardness, and for providing a simple solution and say to Dan that Zev’s preference for grammatically sound speech and writing will result in grammatically sound speech and writing when it is not kept to himself.

  • http://wheatstoneforum.com Rachel

    ::rolls eyes and laughs at grammar comments::
    Thank you, Dustin, for all the hard work you’ve put into this. You do a great job.

  • Matt E.

    Congratulations and welcome! I’ve got a request for y’all right of the bat—please continue the Thirty Three Things posts. Thanks!

  • Doug

    Yes, I’m a week late. But ouch! “Joe contacted myself” does the same for me now as it did then. Though I want to read on, my mind keeps telling myself (a more appropriate usage I believe), “This is the first sentence from the new TEO Senior Editor? Does he know the importance of keeping the fold up tray tables clean?”
    I don’t claim to be an accomplished writer, and I depend upon the editorial gifts of others to correct that which I do write. Eighty-eight percent of The American Dictionary Usage Panel “find this sentence unacceptable: The boss asked John and myself to give a brief presentation.”
    Errors are unavoidable. Fix them and say, “Oops” please. I still want to savor TEO.