“It’s nothing personal; it’s just business.”
That line has become as common as “winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” And the idea is that business operates under a different set of rules. Stabbing someone in the back to get ahead in business isn’t really cruel or unkind. It certainly doesn’t mean I dislike the person. It’s just that, in order to get ahead, you have to be cut-throat. Or so those who use the phrase seem to be saying.
The thing is, Christians seem to be accepting this line of thinking, as if “it’s just business” means we can put our Christian values aside and do what’s expedient.
I think this fragmentation of morals is a by-product of American pragmatism. Above all else, can-do Americans believe in what works. That’s why you find so many self-help books at Borders. That’s why many Christian stores have self-help sections.
Self-help Christianity? Isn’t that a contradiction of terms? Before a person can ever come to Christ, he must realize there is no self-help for his problem of sin.
But after salvation, maybe self-help works for the rest of life.
Not according to Scripture. “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
Of course, that “perfected” has to do with sanctification. It would indicate that back in Paul’s day, some Christians got the idea that they needed grace to begin their walk with God, but after that they could take over.
Today’s new trend seems to divorce our spiritual lives from our business lives. It’s not even the idea that I can do business God’s way on my own. It’s closer to the idea that God’s way only matters when it comes to God’s things. Just as business matters aren’t personal, they aren’t part of God’s things either.
I doubt if very many Christians would verbalize this philosophy, but from the outside, it seems like a lot of us have adopted it. Think about some of the middle class values connected with money many Christians hold in America—it’s good stewardship to save for retirement, we should invest our money wisely, we should pay our own way.
I’m not saying those ideas are wrong, but I doubt if the Apostle Paul had a retirement fund. The first century Christians were more about investing their lives than their money, and they preached that the believers with extra should provide for those in need.
Maybe I’m simplifying things too much, but it seems to me that what I believe to be true about God needs to apply to all parts of life. So if God is sovereign in the affairs of men, then He is also sovereign over business.
Consequently, no matter how I wrangle, no matter how many hours I stay at the wheel, no matter how much I promote, no matter how professional my presentation, God is the One who brings all those plans to fruition. Or not.
Am I saying writers shouldn’t promote or be professional or work long and hard? Not at all. But I don’t think any of that should come as self-effort. I should proceed with prayer, do what God leads me to do as a result of my time with Him, then trust Him with the results.
And maybe the same is true for editors and agents and publishers and association executives.
Well, yes, it’s true for all of us. We are all to do what God desires in every area of life. We aren’t to worry about the results. We are to simply obey.
I don’t have a retirement fund. I don’t have health insurance. I trust God to give me what I need, when I need it. But I’m not sure how you’re applying that to writing or publishing. I don’t stab people in the back. I don’t steal their ideas and put them in my books. I don’t knock them out of the way so I can sit next to the editor at Mount Hermon. =0) Is that what you mean?
Wow! Great post, Becky! God is so faithful in every single thing. We must keep our eyes on Him now more than ever!!
Thanks for this wonderful reminder!
I used to be a publisher. Only about a dozen books. Back in the 80s I was able to get hold of a good one. It was small but relevant and well researched, written by a clergyman working as a history lecturer. It sold in the thousands and I had to reprint three times. There was a German and Korean edition. The author got a professorship at Fuler, a theological college in Los Angeles, USA. So we thought it might be possible to get an American edition.
We did find a small American publisher. I went out of my way to help them. I posted at my own expense a full set of the negatives for use in printing. The Americans just used this as is, without adding anything of their own except for a new cover. So it was the Australian edition with a US cover. We discussed the rights situation and I said I would handle the Australasian market, they could have the North American market. If either of us got orders from other parts of the world we should just handle them until such time as we found publishers there. I didn’t get any agreement in writing because I figured we were brothers in Christ and working for the same ends.
A few years later I began to encounter copies of the US edition in Australia. Not just a couple, but lots. Australian bookshops stopped ordering from me and began taking the US edition. I rang the US publisher and asked what was happening. He said that the book wasn’t selling as well as he hoped. In fact, he had sold fewer than I did, when he should have sold about 15 times more (considering the differences in population size). He said that he had to sell the book into the right market, and I had created it in Australia and New Zealand. I reminded him of our agreement. He said that we were still brothers in Christ, but this was business.
That’s when I first learnt not to get between an American and a dollar. You’ll get trampled in the rush.
The USA puts itself forward as this great Christian nation. Maybe because lots of people got to meetings and have religious words slither out of their mouths. The rest of us see how Americans act in the world and know it can’t possibly be true. So what is going on?
I think religion (usually Christianity but not exclusively) in the USA functions as a comforting supporting ideology. The business of America is piracy. But this can be too cold-blooded an identity to live with. So they put on the warm cozy suit of spirituality. Then they can tell each other, we are uniquely blessed of God. Everythikng we do is right. It is our divine mission to bring civilisation to the benighted natives. And if those natives have a little trinket of any value, it is only right that the Americans should relieve them of it and take it back home where it can be truly valued. This is okay because everything they do is right because they are blessed and chosen by God.
I’m no longer in the publishing business. I went broke. The US publisher used their economic bargaining power to make sure only their edition was sold in bookshops around the world. Last time I looked their publishing efforts were going well. And I imagine they were all going to church, saying their prayers and singing their choruses.
At this point you are probably overwhelmed by the need to write to me and say no, no all the Americans you know are pure and sincere and they give everyone money and still people hate them. But they are still the Great Christian nation, blessed by God and charged with the mission of bringing that blessing to the lesser peoples around the world. Please feel free to remind me of that. I keep forgetting.
Sally, that’s it. We are ALL to live integrated lives. Christ isn’t something we tack on or someone we can consult when all else fails, but that’s the way we operate so often.
Kim, I’m glad this post served as a reminder of the way God wants us to live.
Becky
Ken, you sound like you have some bitterness toward America.
As far back as the 1970′s I heard sermons equating America with Laodicea, and it’s hard to deny the similarities. Our culture acts more and more self-reliant, to the point that God has been marginalized even in a good many churches (which aren’t part of The Church, but are platforms for false teachers).
Our god is Self and we worship freedom, with winning and wealth tying for second.
I’m not going to defend such sin, but reality is, this is a human condition, not an American one, spawned by our depraved nature. Whether we’re talking about Laodicea or France, America, or Australia, sin leaves its marks on the culture in one way or another.
What I see here is Christians compartmentalizing our faith which offers an out to us when pressed in a business context to participate in dishonest or unethical or unkind practices. There is no out. Christ expects us to love our neighbor at all times. Even the hateful Americans, Ken.
Becky