September 27, 2010

Guidelines

One of the frustrations for the publishing industry is that they get submissions from writers who failed to read the company’s guidelines. An example might be a writer submitting a story to Guideposts promoting witchcraft, all on the assumption that the magazine has ‘spiritual’ content. The American Tract Society has this tip for writers: “Read our current tracts; submit polished writing; relate to people’s needs and experiences. Follow guidelines – almost no one does.” Believers sometimes have a similar lack of spiritual professionalism in that we too often fail to follow the guidelines.

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----There are many ways to skin a cat, as an old saying goes. In fact, since I like cats, I regard the saying in view of an old expression for operating a bulldozer, which was called “skinning a Cat”. In a way, I suppose that is not following guidelines, but it settles in my mind a bit more kindly. Guidelines have their place and purpose. Sometimes they help, and sometimes they hinder, because life is a complex, moving target. Most likely there are some differences between the guidelines of the tract publishers today and those of fifty years ago. And many tracts their guidelines produce get thrown into the trash because they just don’t communicate to everyone.
-----So guidelines are more about establishing and maintaining a specified set of means for achieving an end than they are about achieving the end by any means. People are ends-oriented, whether the ends be short term, long-term, or eternal. Most conflicts exist in spite of similar goals. Usually, the disputes are over the means for reaching those goals - the guidelines. Then differing people fail to recognize their partnership in the same goal, and they fail to be supportive of one another while working hard within their own guidelines.
-----People get the guidelines mixed up with the ends. Tracts directed towards a general populace will be produced by a rather different set of guidelines than tracts made to reach drug addicts. Yet both seek the same end of eternal salvation for the reader. A government’s laws are guidelines for establishing peace, order, and safety so its citizens will be able to fulfill their temporal lives. Most religions direct their followers towards the personal morality and civil behavior which generate attitudes of obedience. This is conducive to good governance. So, moral religions make good partners in civil governance, even though each may have different guidelines for the fulfillment of life after its temporal end.
-----But it is exactly the fulfillment after life’s temporal end that muddles our co-operation before the temporal end. It makes us take our guidelines very seriously. And in regards to guidelines for salvation, that is proper. The truth is, God established only one set of guidelines for achieving fulfillment after death. And it behooves everyone who knows Him, by whatever guidelines we might make useful, to clarify that fact for others. This does not make differing guidelines for the message useless. It only channels efforts according to skills, understanding, and personality, while making all who believe to be partners in the same end.

Love you all,
Steve Corey