Why start an official blog?
I’ve always enjoyed thinking, reading, and writing, particularly about politics, theology, and culture. It feels like a gift God has given me, but at times I’ve chosen to hide this gift or decline to take the time to develop it further.
No longer.
As I see fake news and outright lies spread faster on social media than the truth, and outrage-driven algorithms merely incentivize the loudest, most aggressive voices to keep on spewing forth garbage, I feel more and more drawn to longform essays that are thoughtful, nuanced, and informed. In the past year I’ve subscribed to both Plough Magazine and The Atlantic in order to read essays written by others that fit in that category, but I want to go beyond that and begin writing on a regular basis again. This website, andrewtberg.com , will replace my very old blog at andrewtberg.blogspot.com (which hasn’t been updated since 2013). By beginning to write again here, without the cacophony of voices and the siren’s call of the addicting Facebook algorithm, I hope to speak my voice in a way that advances goodness in the world, rather than merely adding to the noise.
In addition, I hope that by writing here I will write to an audience that is hungry for in-depth analysis on topics such as politics, religion, and culture. The unfortunate reality is that I have lost friends, acquaintances, and donors due to things I’ve written on Facebook which I thought were nuanced and thoughtful, but which were still too incendiary for some people to handle. By setting up a separate website that is purely set up for my writing, I hope I will avoid offending those who are merely scrolling through their Facebook feed for fun and not looking for an in-depth political or religious piece.
The title of this blog, “The Dreamer & The Realist,” is inspired by a song written by a Newburgh-based indie rock band called The Morning Of. Beyond the subtle nod to my roots in upstate New York, the title describes what I hope will be the tone of my pieces here: hopelessly idealistic, as befitting a citizen of the Kingdom of Jesus, yet also firmly rooted in the harsh truths of this broken world. I myself often vacillate between these two frames of mind, but I hope that I can hold the tension between dreaming and realism in the course of this blog.
I’m not sure how often I will write here, or what it will even look like, but if you have ever enjoyed anything I’ve ever said or written (or just feel curious), I invite you to subscribe so you will receive future posts.
God bless!
-Andrew T. Berg