“You must have a lot of courage,” a friend said to me the other day.

I’m as conflict avoidant as any Midwesterner, so I asked why. 

“To be the editor of the Reformed Journal and publish the things you do. It takes courage,” she said.

I chuckled. “I’m not courageous,” I said. “I’m free.” 

What a gift that is. 

These words from King Lear ring in my head:

The weight of this sad time 
We must obey
Speak what we feel
Not what we ought to say. 

I have the freedom to speak what I feel. I help facilitate others as they also do that. If I were beholden to MAGA donors or some institution, if my livelihood was at stake, if my personal safety was at stake, yes, then it would take courage to put out the Reformed Journal and not have it sound like Pravda. But I am free. Free not to walk on eggshells. Free not to be constantly looking over my shoulder. Free to be me. Free to speak what I feel. What a gift that is. 

You make that freedom possible. 

The Reformed Journal is independent and exists wholly on the support of folks like you. We do our part to keep costs down: The writers donate their work, the bookkeeper is a volunteer, the board are volunteers, and the editors receive modest stipends. But it still costs something to host the site, send out emails, keep the spammers and scammers at bay, and engage our tech team. The combination of low costs and your generous giving has created a sustainable model that allows us to be an independent progressive Reformed voice. 

And we’ve found an audience. We keep growing every year—we’ve got a month to go in 2025 and we’re already well over a million page views. The computers that analyze these things say that over half a million people opened an article on the Reformed Journal in 2025. I tend to think you’re all in West Michigan, Canada, and Northwest Iowa, but the computer tells a different story: China, Australia, South Africa, Germany, England, the Philippines, India, and on and on around the world.  

I don’t know anyone else who does what we do and who fields such an interesting and captivating stable of authors. It’s an honor to be the editor. I wish I could say I was courageous, but I’m not. Just sad about the rise of Christian Nationalism and authoritarianism, sad about the environmental destruction of our planet, sad about the continued exclusion of people on the margins, and sad at the decline of the church. Just like you. And also just like you, I am not content to let these things happen without raising my voice.  

Thank you for giving us the freedom to be who we are and speak what we feel. Thank you for bringing us this far. We’re counting on you for 2026.