Chuck Swindoll and Integrity
I’m going to be interviewing Chuck Swindoll for an upcoming issue of Smart Ministry and I mentioned to his publicist that the publisher might wish to advertise the book in the newsletter. You could feel the red flags go up in her mind as she asked if advertising was required for editorial coverage. Required? Of course not! How could any publication claim an ounce of editorial integrity if it was? And yet she assured me that there are several Christian magazines/e-newsletters that require advertising. She said they’re in the minority, but they’re out there.
I hope you’re as disturbed at that thought as I am.
I didn’t ask her for the names of those publications, and she probably wouldn’t have given them to me. But let me issue a public challenge to every Christian publication and blog in the world to match this statement:
BP Resources does not require advertising for any of the editorial coverage in any of our sites or publications, including but not limited to, Insights on the Journey blog, Smart Ministry newsletter, Preaching Unleashed, Publishing Your Work, and the BP Resources home site. We may offer advertising opportunities in one of more of these places, but our editorial coverage is never dependent upon–nor influenced by–whether that advertising happens.
Look at the list of Christian publications you receive and sites you follow, and challenge all of them to make that same statement.
I think it’s very appropriate that this discussion arose because I’m going to be talking with Chuck Swindoll. (Yes, I know that in respect I should refer to him as Dr. Charles Swindoll, but after years of hearing him call himself “Chuck” I can’t think of him any other way. Well, that’s not quite true…after hearing his sister several times it’s cute to think of him as “Babe.”) There have been so many scandals, and yet through it all Chuck’s name and ministry have remained above reproach. (Well, except for one wacko who condemned Chuck to hell for not teaching from the King James Version.) I think the operative word is integrity.
There are so many ways, large and small, in which we can compromise our integrity. Requiring bribes to say something nice about a person or product is a fairly blatant one. But let’s all examine ourselves closely, and see what small ways we might have justified lapses to ourselves.
Would your (and my) ministry and life withstand public scrutiny?
