I've backed 3 kickstarter campaigns (and thinking about a 4th one).
The first two were things my friends were working on. (Home of the Brave and I Hate You)
The third one was the Forever Bible, for reasons I can't explain, I just want.
And the fourth one I'm thinking about is this Klik Belt. Because — well, I don't know why. I just want it.
Which got me thinking.
Can I say I'm for something if I don't put my money where my mouth is?
For instance, I was walking home from Starbucks a while back when a representative from D.A.R.E. stopped me and asked me to pledge to their cause. D.A.R.E. used to be (solely) a drug program from what I remembered, but now it seemed to really be focused on stopping bullying. And I'm a huge proponent for anti-bullying campaigns.
It just that I didn't have any cash on me. I rarely carry any cash on me, so that I'm not lying when I say I don't have cash.
The lady said, “It's okay, we take credit cards now, too.”
Oh. But, on that day, I had forgotten my wallet. I really did. And when I said that, I felt stupid because I was holding a Starbucks cup and so I went out of the way to explain to her that I buy Starbucks through the Starbucks app on my phone. (I really do).
As I walked away, I lamented not using my always trusty (but very dishonest) go-to excuse: “Eh? Sorry. No speak english. So sorry.”
But, how much am I for anti-bullying if I don't put my money behind my beliefs?
Or take some of my friends who boycotted Chic-Fil-A. I disagreed with Chic-Fil-A — but I couldn't join my colleagues in boycott them. I am weak. We don't even have a Burger King in Santa Barbara and every time I go to McDonalds, I start a journey of self-loathing. Chic-Fil-A was just too good to give up.
But, every time I went, I made sure I didn't enjoy it as much. Okay, that's a lie, too. I can't not enjoy their waffle fries and sandwiches.
But yet — I'm willing to drop some money on kickstarter campaigns? I sometimes don't understand myself.
Which then got me thinking about church.
I'm learning that this generation is a very generous. Just not to the church. They give to charities; non-profits; causes; to things like Kickstarter; but when it comes to the church you can almost hear the crickets chirping.
Why is that?
Is it because they just don't believe the church can have any impact in the community anymore? Or they feel that the church is so out of touch with the world that the church wouldn't know where to begin to actually make the world a better place?
And I wonder — if my parents didn't engrain in my brain and heart the discipline of tithing; and if I wasn't a pastor — would I give to the church?
Back to my original question: can you say you are for something if you never want to open up your wallet and support that cause?
Posted with Blogsy
Joseph Yoo 
There are issues surrounding “The Forever Bible”: “I’m sad to see the Blaze basically advertising this product. You would think they would do more research before tacitly endorsing this product by running a story on it. All one has to do is look in the comments section to see the problems.
The Kickstarter is breaking rules, this isn’t a new product like the campaign is advertising, there is a staff person trying to drown out questions about the campaign by spamming Bible passages, and the creator was involved in a previous Kickstarter scam. There are a lot of questions about this dubious project that the people running the campaign are refusing to answer. Instead they are spamming the comments section to try to drive the questions to the bottom in the hopes that new people won’t scroll far enough to read them. There have been enough questions that people are pulling their pledges, including a $10,000 pledge.
Happily, it seems you can already purchase a waterproof Bible from a reputable company, in manny more translations than this Kickstarter is offering: http://www.bardinmarsee.com With over 100,000 already printed by this company, I would feel much better ordering from them than dealing with the good possibility that my money would be stolen in the KS campaign.”
Hello, unfortunately you have been misled by this vendetta of these slanderous disgruntled backers of a previous Kickstarter project that Jared was a part of. Without the intent to defraud, their is no scam. One out of every two new company’s fail. You must ask yourself if all that fail are scams or just ran into insurmountable problems. The half dozen or so people that you may have heard from know the truth but refuse to listen because all they want is vengeance and have made it their goal to discredit Forever Publishing regardless of the truth. Also, do you think the guy on Kickstarter that raised $60k had “NEW” potato salad? Did his potatoes come from a NEW species? I think not.
Big difference. He was honest, and stated that all he wanted to do is make some potato salad. He actually put a smile on many faces, and thus the contributions. Good for him for bringing an odd, but unique request. Jared on the other hand must give some type of accounting for funding that was over half a million dollars
You may want to reconsider your endorsement of The Forever Bible for these reasons:
1.) The project creator, Jared Casey is the COO / Co-founder of Radiate Athletics who have failed to deliver on their 1st Kickstarter campaign https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/radiate/radiate-athletics-the-future-of-sports-apparel/comments
2.) The Forever Bible is not a new or unique product; Bardin & Marsee are the actual manufacturers, producing this product since 2005 with over 100,000 copies world wide. Jared Casey only designed 3 new covers, an option available to any group willing to purchase 200 copies or more at a 40% discount off retail http://www.bardinmarsee.com/custom.aspx
3.) Jared Casey, project creator allowed one of his volunteers to spam the comments section with over 300 biblical quotes in an effort to censor the direct and relevant questions he did not have the fortitude to respond to himself. These are not the actions of true believers, nor does her comment about reading the bible in her bathtub & hot tub demonstrate the modesty and humility one would expect.
4.) Jared Casey has taken no accountability for his collusion in the Radiate fiasco, instead he is claiming only to have been the video/web guy even after appearing on multiple Wall Street Journal Startup videos and other press releases as COO and co-founder. Additionally he has attempted to erase any connection to Radiate Athletics from his online history https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1627344646/the-forever-bible-a-bible-that-literally-walks-on/comments?cursor=7529455#comment-7529454
I love the idea of a waterproof bible, or any book for that matter – but to purchase a sacred text from a man who knowingly and willingly has conspired and colluded to defraud thousands of people for hundreds of thousands of dollars only to turn around and attempt to reinvent himself as a bible salesman seems slightly more than hypocritical.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration,
six
Just to set the record straight, Six is one of the half dozen or so slanderous disgruntled backers of Radiate Athletics. That previous project has had problems but Jared Casey had no control over product manufacturing and he is no longer a part of that project. As I say above, one out of every two new companys fail, but their has to be INTENT TO DEFRAUD before you can claim anything a scam and there is no evidence of that, that six or anyone else can provide and yet they continue to slander forever Publishing simply because Jared is a part of it which makes it obvious that their comments are nothing more that a vendetta. There is no collusion to defraud and there never has been by Jared, The product wasn’t even his idea.
I didn’t want to weigh in on this — but to be fair, Tom, it doesn’t help your cause when the email you used to register this comment has your last name as “Casey.”
Like you, I dont hide behind pseudonyms Joseph. Yes I am biased, but I do speak the truth. I was not part of Radiate and am not a part of the Forever Bible project except for a pledge. I dont know all of the facts, but I do know that Jared would not scam anyone.
Tom, may I call you Tom?
Hide behind a pseudonym? Did you not look at the url of this blog? It’s josephyoo.com as in Joseph Yoo.. as in not a pseudonym — but my real name.
Anyway — Do I think Jared (some who’ve said was your brother, another your son) is scamming people?
No. I don’t think that’s his intention.
Do I think that Radiate went badly? — yes. As things are wont to do
You’re right in your earlier comment: not all things work out for the end.
However, it seems like no one got an update or even an apology. Thousands of comments from disgruntled people led to distrusting Mr. Jared Casey in his new project. That’s unfortunate. But perhaps it wouldn’t have been that vehement if he addressed his backers? Did he? Maybe he did. I dont know. Frankly, I don’t care. BUT — from the people that backed him, they didn’t feel like he did nor did they get their money back or their product.
One user even posted an apology for their lack of progress in their product because they live in a war-torn country and recently lost their sister. But gave their backers an update — which Radiate backers feel they’ve lacked, even if that’s not true.
And truth is relative. If you’re biased — your “truth” will be your version of THE Truth.
That’s why when there’s an investigation no one hires someone who has biases. They try to get the truth by hiring someone who has no affiliation or subjectiveness.
Bottom line:
this is stupid. I’ve wasted too much time trying to comment.
I won’t approve any more comments after this — which is in my right to do so because, again, it’s my blog that bears my name — not a pseudonym.
I don’t think Mr. Casey is intentionally scamming people. I think others are just pointing out that things went bad and no one seemed to take responsibility. Some are doing it tactfully, others are being rude because, hey — it’s the Internet. It’s like Yelp or any other reviews — people had a bad experience and they want others to know about it. And that’s what I find here.
I don’t think it helped Mr. Casey’s cause by spamming his own kickstarter page with comments from “Anna” and others.
The other kickstarter pledges I’ve made are facing delays but they’ve kept us up to date on why and what they’re doing.
So not because I think Mr. Casey is scamming anyone — but because of not having complete faith that things might get delivered, I cancelled my pledge. But that shouldn’t matter because it was successful! And that’s awesome.
But I could also get the bible straight from the source and have the assurance and insurance it’ll get back to me.
I really do wish you and yours a successful kickstarter project. And I hope that you guys can shut those naysayers up by delivering on the promised goods.