If you visit other blogs, you will likely encounter ads like this:
And this:
I understand why bloggers include ads like this. Blogging is hard work and padding your articles with some click bait on the edges provides a modest revenue stream.
I have always declined to pad my articles with click bait, despite the fact that a modest revenue stream might help offset the significant annual expense (more than $1000 and countless hours) that I invest to keep this blog, podcast and website running.
In return, I have made one modest request: that you consider joining The Tentative Apologist Kiva Group to help entrepreneurs in the developing world. If you’re interested, it would only require a minimum one time investment of $25 in Kiva, a micro-lending agency that receives a coveted 4 star rating from Charitynavigator.org. Please consider joining. The link to my Kiva group is on the right side of the page.
Up until now, that’s all I’ve asked. But now I’m asking for a bit more. Today my webmaster obliged my request to add a graphic calling for the end of the illegal ivory trade. You can see it right there at the top of the right side of the page. Please consider clicking on the link and visiting the website. (Hopefully it is obvious that I do not make any money when people click the link. In case it wasn’t obvious to you, now you know.)
Once you’re at the website http://www.lastdaysofivory.com/ you will be able to watch a short (approximately 5 minute) video made by acclaimed film director Kathryn Bigelow that outlines the shocking problem, including the staggering statistic that one elephant — one of God’s most beautiful, gentle and intelligent creatures — is illegally butchered every five minutes to fuel a multi-million dollar illegal trade in ivory. At this rate, elephants could be extinct in just over a decade. The loss of such an incredible species is bad enough. No less horrible (and in some respects even worse to think about) is the individual agony of particular elephants as they have their faces cut off while they’re still alive, and all so that some useless damned trinkets can be made from their tusks.
As the Apostle Paul said, the creation groans, waiting for the children of God to be revealed (Romans 8:19). We can begin to do something about that groaning now. So please visit the website http://www.lastdaysofivory.com/, watch the short video, and carefully consider the difference you can make.
If you just promise to do that, I promise you won’t ever find my website cluttered with stuff like this:
