{"id":1856,"date":"2013-08-22T00:00:45","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T05:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=1856"},"modified":"2013-08-21T22:27:05","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T03:27:05","slug":"ghost-writing-a-common-even-by-christians-yet-unethical-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=1856","title":{"rendered":"GHOST-WRITING: A COMMON (EVEN WITH CHRISTIANS), YET UNETHICAL PRACTICE"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"irc_mimg\"><a id=\"irc_mil\" style=\"border: 0px none;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=i&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=images&amp;cd=&amp;docid=HemyrasfPB05RM&amp;tbnid=9USqiE39a8Z49M:&amp;ved=&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tumblr.com%2Ftagged%2Fghost-writer&amp;ei=mDv3UbGwDYu29gTu5oHwAw&amp;bvm=bv.49967636,d.eWU&amp;psig=AFQjCNFkAT8EOEuYD_0Uz9zDv5_ZLkf7bQ&amp;ust=1375243488413833\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"irc_mi\" style=\"margin-top: 50px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/24.media.tumblr.com\/tumblr_m5avmm9Maj1rnvzfwo1_500.jpg\" width=\"497\" height=\"406\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>My introduction to ghost-writing came via a gifted friend from my days at Stanford.\u00a0 She received her B.A. in classics from Stanford with distinction. \u00a0She is a gifted writer.\u00a0 After college she went to work with a Christian ministry.\u00a0 My wife and I were visiting with her one day when she read a letter from a well-known Christian leader.\u00a0 I was a bit surprised by how well the letter was written and commenced to voice my astonishment.\u00a0 My friend said, &#8220;Oh no, she did not write it.\u00a0 I did.&#8221;\u00a0 I was speechless&#8230;a rather uncommon occurrence for me!<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>After this, I started to hear more about ghost-writing.\u00a0 There were all kinds of rationales given to the practice, but all struck me as ridiculous.\u00a0 Who cares if everyone is doing it?\u00a0 That is certainly not a compelling argument.\u00a0 Who cares if both the ghost-writer and the more famous Christian are fine with it?\u00a0 No argument of any worth there either.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>My first opportunity to ghost-write came about ten years ago.\u00a0 I turned down the offer even though the money was good.\u00a0 In the depths of the recent recession when we almost lost our home, I said &#8220;yes&#8221; to ghost-writing two smaller pieces.\u00a0 It was a weak moment to be sure, but inexcusable.\u00a0 I will never do it again.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>I have no problem with a famous Christian utilizing the skills of a more gifted writer as long as proper attribution is given.\u00a0 Which means in many cases putting them on the cover as a co-author.\u00a0 And how many follow that practice?\u00a0 Very few, I&#8217;m afraid.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>I talked with a journalist several years back who was working on a major book about ghost-writing among Christians.\u00a0 He decided to scrap it because he felt it would be too much of a stumbling block for Christians to find out how many of their favorite writers are really not the guy or gal writing the book!<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My introduction to ghost-writing came via a gifted friend from my days at Stanford.\u00a0 She received her B.A. in classics from Stanford with distinction. \u00a0She is a gifted writer.\u00a0 After college she went to work with a Christian ministry.\u00a0 My wife and I were visiting with her one day when she read a letter from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sin","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1856"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2037,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions\/2037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}