{"id":841,"date":"2018-04-05T11:14:30","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T15:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/?p=841"},"modified":"2018-04-05T11:16:32","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T15:16:32","slug":"the-gracious-heretic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/the-gracious-heretic\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gracious Heretic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My \u00a0posts are all over the place. Politics. Spiritual practice. Theological musings. Feminism. Personal stories. Occasional rants.
\n“They” tell me that if I want my book to sell when it comes out I need to brand myself.
\nGenerate a blog with consistent, thought-provoking themes. Themes that point to the direction and scope of the book.
\nThey tell me I need to get people to “buy in” to my writing on this blog.
\nGee, wouldn’t that be great. But if \u00a0you’re reading this you’ve already bought in.<\/p>\n

I’m not good at that branding stuff. If I pick a word or two or three or four to focus what\u00a0“I am about” I lose several dozen other things that are equally important to me. Some days I’m pensive, some I’m discombobulated.<\/p>\n

So this is what I want to know:\u00a0how do you do it?<\/em>\u00a0 And maybe even more than that, do\u00a0I<\/em> want to do it? Or maybe the word brand is what gets in my way. A brand is basically the way you want other people to see you. Of course, I want you to see me as spiritually enlightened, politically engaged, feminist, Christian, wise, and if I had my complete druthers, beautiful.<\/p>\n

Another thing about a brand is that one comes to trust or distrust a brand based on personal experience. I think that is what I strive for: to tell the truth, even when it is difficult, even when it is about myself. In those ways I try hard to be trustworthy.<\/p>\n

So here’s the truth as I see it. I am a heretic in the classic definition of the word: I hold opinions contrary to church dogma. I also work really hard to be gracious, meaning godly, compassionate, kind, forgiving, and justice-loving. So maybe that’s my brand. The all-over-the-place posts you read are all\u00a0<\/em>located there. And you can trust that. Or with experience and over time, see a consistency that earns your trust.<\/p>\n

So brand me The Gracious Heretic<\/em>. It’s all I got.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My \u00a0posts are all over the place. Politics. Spiritual practice. Theological musings. Feminism. Personal stories. Occasional rants. “They” tell me that if I want my book to sell when it comes out I need to brand myself. Generate a blog with consistent, thought-provoking themes. Themes that point to the direction and scope of the book. … Continue reading The Gracious Heretic<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":848,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841\/revisions\/848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}