Welcome to the personal blog of Greg S. West; Jesus follower, family man, Christian apologist, and all-around egg head. Founder and editor of
The Poached Egg Christian Worldview and Apologetics Network and staff member at Ratio Christi.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Will the real 'public figure' please stand up? And, no, it's not me...

Greg West (actual 'public figure')
Ok, so why start another blog when I already have a wildly popular blog (The Poached Egg)? Well, the answer to that is fairly simple. The Poached Egg is a blog, or aggregator, if you will, that is focused primarily on Christian Apologetics and worldview issues. Although a large portion of my life is dedicated to that discipline, there is actually more to me that I would occasionally like to express.

For instance, let's say I want to write rant about the jerk that cut me off in traffic the other day- well, a Christian apologetics website would not really be the appropriate place to do that. Although I guess it could be if I tied it in to the problem of human nature or the problem of evil and the existence of God or free will vs. determinism or something like that, but the truth is that sometimes I just want to express myself without getting all cerebral... sometimes I just want to express my feelings- yes, we Christian apologists actually have those. Sometimes it actually does hurt our feelings when those of the anti-Christian persuasion (or even fellow Christians) hurl insults at us saying things like there is no evidence for God, you're too stupid to live, or you're going to hell because you posted that quote from Bono who is also going to hell because he's a rock star.

Another reason I wanted to start this blog is because according to Facebook, once you reach 5,000 friends on your profile, you're a 'public figure'. Well, ok, I'm not quite there yet, but at the time of this writing I have over 4,600 friends, so I may be jumping the gun a bit. But- just to assure you (and myself) that I am actually a public figure, I've included in this post a picture of me publicly speaking to... what looks like a room full of empty chairs. Oh wait... you can see someone's arm there at the bottom of the picture which proves that there was at least one person there (I promise I did NOT photo shop that arm in there). In all actuality, there were nearly forty people there who came to hear me speak. Well, they may have been coming to hear the keynote speaker who was after me, but he was from out of town and I actually knew everyone there so I'm sure they were there to hear me as opposed to him, so rest assured, I am a public figure and all public figures should have their own website or blog that is all about them and not just apologetics.

And just in case there is any doubt that I am a public figure, I now have a Facebook fan page that says I'm a public figure, and at the time of this writing I have one fan who agrees with me and has announced to the world that agreement by 'liking' my page. That one fan happens to be me, but when I created the page, Facebook suggested that I 'like' my own page to congratulate myself for the ten minutes of hard work I spent in creating it. So I took their advice and now have one 'fan'- because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, I like me! By the way, if you'd like to head over there and give me a sympathy 'like', the link is here. I would sincerely appreciate it.

In all seriousness, the main reason I started this blog is because I'm doing what's called 'branding' myself- no, not the kind you do with a hot iron like they do to cattle, but the kind you do when you have the privilege of having a platform and you want to expand the reach of that platform- and the reason I wish to expand that platform is not because I want people to know all about me (although I do enjoy expressing myself), it's because I want people to be aware of what I do- and what I do is help equip Christians to know why they believe what they believe, not just for their own sake, but so that they might become better ambassadors for Christ so that others, including the anti-Christian who hurls insults at me (or you), the hardcore skeptic, or the honest seeker, or the fellow Christian who is struggling with doubt will come to know Jesus in an intimate way. God loves all of these as much as he loves you and me and in this day and age, Christian apologetics is essential in being able to that effectively.

That's why I do what I do and hope that you will help me spread the Word and point people to Christ, the most 'public' public figure of all; the one who has been written about and talked about more than all other public figures throughout history combined!

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