I don’t like what I’m doing now. I don’t like saying to the world, “Hey, look at me!” It conflicts with my sense of modesty and the value I place on self-restraint.

But I’m a writer, and I’m writer because I have spent my entire life, from a very early age, asking life’s big questions and trying to formulate easy-to-understand answers — for myself, of course, but also for others.

In the past, writers could be more modest. They could write a book and show it only to a publisher, who would then take over the task of getting the world’s attention. Today publishers expect writers to already have the world’s attention, so they can count on books selling. That’s because more people are writing books nowadays, and fewer people are reading them.

Publishers now demand that an author have a “platform” — a ready-made audience based on the author’s personal fame, organizational affiliation, or media presence. Celebrities can sell books just by putting their names on the cover. Pastors can sell books by preaching to their congregations. Bloggers can sell books by talking them up online.

I’ve had the world’s attention in the past. I’ve been on ABC’s “Nightline,” CBS’s “Face the Nation,” NBC’s “Today,” and CNN’s “Larry King Live.” I’ve been a guest speaker at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and several other schools and conventions. I’ve also written regularly for a national newspaper on major topics of international interest. A leading journalist in Budapest even wrote a column about me entitled “Ode to Brian Mitchell.”

Over the years, I’ve published some pretty good answers to some of life’s biggest questions, making historic contributions to two fields of study, political theory and Christian theology.

But I’m not a celebrity, and I don’t have the backing of any organization. To provide for my wife and children, I have had to pursue work out of the public spotlight, which has cost me my platform.

Thus my need to blog, to make available to more people the answers I have already worked out, and to work out more and better answers through online postings and discussions. I welcome your readership, and I look forward to hearing your comments and questions and to engaging you in thoughtful discussion as much as time permits.

Please let me know if there’s anything you would fix or change in the blog’s setup. There’s still a lot I need to learn about how these things work.

Thank you, and God bless.