This is going to be a short one because there isn’t really a lot that needs to be said, but please, can we stop shilling for Bart Ehrman’s various and sundry “classes”? Please?

Because truth be told, he’s starting to look a whole lot like the religious apologist scammers that run around in the incestuous social media sphere, trying to sell books, lectures and all manner of nonsense to gullible sycophants.

Enough is enough!

Now I’ve got nothing against Bart. Nothing at all. I mostly agree with the things that he says, although there are some notable exceptions, but he’s mostly been an academic throughout his career, putting out books and doing debates and I can certainly respect that.

More recently though, he’s been on the podcast circuit, going from atheist channel to atheist channel, giving short interviews or talks and pushing his online seminars and that’s really starting to get to me.

I’m not going to begrudge him his money, he certainly has earned it, but what’s the difference between what he’s doing and, say, what J. Warner Wallace did recently with his new book? All of a sudden, he was everywhere, pushing his works, hyping his offerings and trying to ensure that he makes a lot of money. It’s one of the big problems with the insanely incestuous nature of Christian apologetics. They’re all willing to shill for each other!

It isn’t just Wallace though. We’ve seen Greg Koukl do it, we’ve seen Frank Turek do it, we’ve seen William Lane Craig do it too. The second they’ve got something to sell, they go on the road to push it everywhere.

Damn if it isn’t starting to look like Bart Ehrman is doing the exact same thing. There are way too many channels out there willing to provide free promotion for the books and talks and all of the rest and every once in a while, Bart swings around to spend a couple of minutes on the marketing circuit and everyone fawns all over him. Except it’s really blatantly obvious that’s all that’s going on. Bart wouldn’t show up on these podcasts or YouTube channels if he didn’t have something to sell. He’s just deigning to spend a few moments of his time in the trenches so he gets some free promotion and people can gather around him for a chance to touch his robes.

Yeah, I don’t think so.

Now like I said, I have nothing against Bart, but shouldn’t we be better than the religious shysters who have been doing the same thing all along? Aren’t we better than that? Because, spoiler alert, I’m in the middle of doing a series of videos on Frank Turek and he spends a huge amount of time on his “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist” podcast shilling everything that he does. Buy my books! Come to my talks! I’m doing this! Give me money! That really feels like the same trap that Bart Ehrman is falling into. He’s never really earned himself a place in the community of his own free will. He always wants something. That’s kind of bugging me.

Anyhow, this was more of a rant after I saw yet another atheist YouTube channel making yet another promotional video trying to sell Bart’s wares. I don’t think Bart even showed up, but I clicked off of it the second it was obvious what it was. I’m watching these channels to be entertained and informed, not to be marketed to. If Bart wants to come by and have a chat, that’s fine. That he seems to be doing it only to push his products, that’s something else. It’s the clear marketing angle that’s bothering me. What do you think? I’d really like to know.