Remember back when Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was still popular? Regis Philbin was at the height of his popularity, no one could believe that a gameshow was giving away that much money, and some jerk IRS employee won the first million dollar give away.
Yeah, that annoyed us, too.
But what annoyed us even more was Regis asking each contestant the same question over and over after they would respond a question: "Is that your final answer?"
Well, just so that there's no doubt, we have a final answer for you today regarding the future of The Secret Diary of D.A. Carson.
Before we get to that, though, we want to thank all of you for your time and your thoughts, whether you're a fan of the blog or you think we're totally in the wrong. Thanks to your blogging and your word of mouth we had over 1,500 visitors over the weekend and we received over 80 comments and emails letting us know how you guys felt about our little site and what you thought we should do. Over 80% of the comments and emails we received urged us to keep up the blog and let us know how much it is being enjoyed. We received emails and comments from seminary professors, seminary students, pastors (some of whom you would know), several stay at home moms that thanked us for making them laugh, and many others. Some of you even let us know that you were praying for us as we struggled with this decision and sought the Lord in this situation. We were literally blown away.
Though we weren't able to respond to all of you, we're very thankful that you found the time and we're humbled that our little project garnered so much attention in only a few short weeks.
Despite all of that, at the end of the week we'll be shutting the site down for good. No, TEDS administration hasn't contacted us again (we're pretty sure they were surprised by your outpouring of love) and we don't feel like the site is inappropriate or off base.
However, it’s becoming clear that lines are beginning to be drawn in the sand. The debate has remained (for the most part) loving and respectful, but the fact that there is a debate at all shows we’re not accomplishing the goal we set out to accomplish: to bring our brothers and sisters together by blogging light-heartedly about the quirks of seminary life and evangelicalism at large.
It was never our intention to divide our brothers and sisters on any of the issues we’ve posted about or the blog in general; our hope was to disarm all sides with a little humor and to discuss issues, even serious ones, with a wink and a smile.
We would’ve loved to hear that the faculty/administration and the students of TEDS and other seminaries were laughing together at our content and our tomfoolery. Or that Emerjerks and the Calvified at large were visiting the site and laughing along with one another. And in fact, we have received several emails indicating that very thing.
But as more people visit the site each day, we’re afraid that the gap between the two sides of this debate will widen.
So this is our last week. We're going to say goodbye on our terms and then we'll discontinue writing. We will, however, leave the blog up for at least an additional week in order for some people to finish up reading it.
Saturday, September 22 will be our final post, but we'll be sure and have daily content until then. Trust us: the rest of the week will be worth checking back in for.
In the meantime, we welcome your thoughts on our decision and we look forward to interacting with you guys over the next few days.
Once again, thanks for all of your support and thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Our prayer is that God would give you guys joy in everything you do for Him.
And never, ever stop laughing.
11 comments:
NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Please don't shut down.
PLEEEEAAASSSEEE?
Fake Don, I come begging. This site has been a joy and has lifted my spirits many nights at my boring job. I get a lot of time on the internet and I try to keep to things of eternal value. But the evangelical blogosphere is so darn serious. You have been a welcome relief. I was so sad the day that purgatorio1.com went down. This will be another sad day if you shut down.
I beg you, oh great dragon.
this is a sad, sad day... one of the highlights of Fall semester as a teds student is being taken away.... thank you men and/or women who have done this. just know that on behalf of myself and certain OTHERS at trinity we give you thanks. gloria a Dios!
well, i guess it's time for someone to start fakemouw.blogspot.com or fakemohler.blogspot.com.
It is sad to see you folks pack it in. I have enjoyed what I have read and look forward to reading what remains of this blog. Satire is just that, satire. If we can not laugh at ourselves then we need to rip the humor out of all other areas of life, because it would remain as only a cruel gesture toward any one else.
So here is to "the Don," may the peace of God infect you with the joy of having made us remember that we are hilarious most of the time. No matter what life throws at us, we just do and say funny stuff.
Thanks.
I have loved your site and will miss it!
Jim Champion
the uptight and too serious have triumphed again.
admirable reasoning, but the constructive work of helping the control obsessed evangelical culture calm down and get over it self lost a great teacher in this blog.
the fact that some TEDS admin types will take offense at that statement proves my point.
thanks though for confirming the deep cultural hangups of our little stream of the Church.
They don't fail to disappoint, even if you did...
so sad.
anony said:
"the uptight and too serious have triumphed again.
admirable reasoning, but the constructive work of helping the control obsessed evangelical culture calm down and get over it self lost a great teacher in this blog.
the fact that some TEDS admin types will take offense at that statement proves my point.
thanks though for confirming the deep cultural hangups of our little stream of the Church.
They don't fail to disappoint, even if you did...
so sad."
I must agree,
Laughing yet Sad in Louisville.
Dear Awesome Carson,
Now that you’ve officially tamed the internet and made your announcement that you’ll be leaving in your usual grand style, I was wondering if I could ask you for a little advice. You see, I started a blog just a couple short weeks after you, and while yours has had massive success and a continually growing audience, I am still working to get my blog off the ground.
I’ve tried to emulate you in every way I know how: I’m currently attending TEDS to take classes from you; I’ve changed my name to initials only (I even have two of the three right!); I’ve discussed John Piper on my blog; I’ve unabashedly used your own blog to advertise for mine (fyi: http://cramercomments.blogspot.com/ …ahem…); I've tried to wrap my mind around Calvinist theology (for goodness sake); and, alas, I've even attempted at humor a time or two.
So, I’m wondering if in your last week of blogging you could reflect on that elusive element that sets your blogging apart from all the rest of us peons and imitators. Please, leave us with one last word of wisdom that we can take with us as we blog for the Kingdom!
Humbly yours,
D.C. Cramer
P.S. Will your ghost writers be doing any other blogging that we should know about?
Mrs. Chaka thinks you're hanging it up because the semester got underway. Chaka himself wouldn't suggest such a thing.
Chaka would suggest that the TEDS-based authors of fakecarson do some writing for The Graduate Scrawl. In fact, he's a little miffed that they didn't write for him when he was the editor.
Please don't go....
A devoted fan
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