Writers needed for Stingray blog

Stingray: a blog for salty Christians ^ | November 8, 2006 | Michael McCullough

[DallasMike]

Stingray is back. Well, sort of back. Between a long and huge project at work that often kept me working until midnight, my father's illness, two minor illnesses of my own, taking weekend classes to better my C# skills, and just plain busyness I have been on an unintended hiatus since late July.

Thanks to all who keep checking back and to those who have written personally to see what I was up to — Chrys, Oink, Kate, and others. I promise to write you back personally as time permits.

The first thing you've probably noticed is that the blog has been completely redesigned. I wanted simplicity and more elegance and was tired of frou-frou for the sake of frou-frou. I hope that this makes the blog easier to read. Comments and criticisms on the new design are welcome.

The second big bit of news is that my job, especially, just does not allow me to blog any longer on a regular basis. However, my readers deserve more. That's why I'm starting up what I'm thinking of calling it Stingray Strike Team, Team Stingray, or The Stingray Brigrade. If you have other ideas for a name, I'm welcome to any input. I'm personally leaning towards Team Stingray.

Whatever we call it, my plan is to assemble a team of a dozen or so bloggers who can post 2 to 3 times a week each. If you wish to post more or less that is fine — I'm just looking for approximately 40 posts a week for the whole site. The qualifications are simple:

1. This blog is not about me. I have another writing project in progress that I hope will be successful and compensate me materially. This blog is about conservative news and commentary on faith and current events. When you write for this blog the post is yours. All I'm doing is merely providing a forum that, even through the hiatus still gets 100-200 hits per day. A few weeks of writing and we should be back to 1,000 or so hits a day.
2. You must be at least a fairly good writer. Not necessarily a great writer, but one who hungers to write but might be too busy to have a blog of your own. If you have a blog of your own but want more readership, this is fine, too. See below for my comments on cross-posting.
3. Good research abilities are a must. The mainstream media fails to cite support for their positions; thus, their stories are basically opinions masquerading as news. If you write, say, that the rich pay more in taxes than they did under Clinton, then link to a citation or two supporting that assertion. We don't want to be like the mainstream media, we want to be better.
4. Humor is good, because even though I'm pretty good at humor writing, I never seem to write humorous blog posts. That needs to change.
5. You will get your own About page. Pictures and such are fine but no nekkid womenfolks. Keep the crudity and vulgarity to a minimum in your posts as well — this is a family site.
6. You do not have to be a Christian like me or even a Christian at all to be a member of the team. Catholics, Jews, and even atheists are welcome. However, the main purpose of this blog is to spread Christianity so I won't accept posts that are totally anti-Christian or that promote another faith. I do accepts posts that are critical of Christians in general because I have written such posts myself. Christians have mostly ignored Darfur and, in the past, have engaged in ugly things like racism. Talking about where Christians as a group fall short are welcome. However, there is absolutely no room here for Catholic/Protestant bashing or anything else of the sort. I am preaching here what C.S. Lewis called “mere Christianity.” There are lots of ways to truly worship God and I'm not egotistical enough to believe that if you don't worship like me in every single way then you're on your way to hell.
7. Posters should be conservative, as this is the second main goal of this blog. I don't mind disagreement on issues here and there, but the angle of this blog is good old mainstream conservatism.
8. There are only two issues that are non-negotiable: pro-life and the War on Terror. If you don't support them in general, then don't write about them. That does not mean that you have to be 100% in agreement with me, just that anything you write must support those two issues in general if you write about them. Disagreements as to how to reach these goals are okay. For example, I am personally willing to accept incrementalism in the fight on abortion. I'm not an all-or-nothing person and I would be happy to support a law that, say, allowed abortions only in the first trimester. That would be a good start for me. You can write about the wisdom of banning abortions after 6 months as a starter and I'll be fine. Likewise, if you have different ideas on fighting the war on terror, I'm amenable to those differences. However, you must support the War on Terror in general or agree not to write about it.
9. If you have your own blog, then cross-posting is welcomed. The goal is not to build my blog's readership at the expenses of your blog's readership, but rather to reach as wide an audience as possible. Just provide a link to your blog on my blog and a link to my blog on your blog. The mainstream media has an Associated Press and a Reuters to publish the same stories in different markets, so why shouldn't we bloggers have the same?

Let me hear from you. Try Freepmailing me or writing me at:

blog(at symbol)mcculloughsite(period)net

A link to some of your writing would be especially welcomed.

[DallasMike]

When I wrote that I cannot accept posts that are promoting another faith, please note that I don't consider Catholicism or any brand of Christianity another faith. I would be very happy to have several Catholic posters. I attend an interdenominational church that has members from all Christian backgrounds, not to mention those who were not Christians at all before joining the church.

Jewish writers are welcome, too, of course. One really cannot understand Christianity without understanding Judaism.

[scrabblehack]

Do you consider Catholics to be Christians?

[DallasMike]

Do you consider Catholics to be Christians?

Of course. Check out my site and you'll find that I have plenty of links to Catholic resources and pro-life charities.

The last thing that I want my blog to be is a Protestant versus Catholic site. Protestants and Catholics may disagree on certain issues but we both agree that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God (and is himself God, along with the Holy Spirit) and that he died on the cross for our sins in order that we may be reconciled to God the Father. We have the most important tenet of Christianity in common and we have the common goal of spreading the gospel of Christ to the nations.