Wow! Great post.

I'm accustomed to hearing "That's wrong" or "That's right" - black and white judgements that reflect little resiliance of a spiritual self. It's easy to say that telling a lie is immoral, unethical, irresponsible, anti-social... That's what I was told.

That doesn't take into account complex situations. You know, the ones that leave you thinking "How the heck do I think about this one?"

Tim wrote:
What would be your reaction to such a phrase:
" Come pray with us at XYZ Church... It will change your life for the better! Here's a list of our testimonials..."

Well, I think my observation would be the message to market mis-match.

Here's one of my tests on this sort of thing. If I'm evangelizing about a product because I have conviction for the consumer's happiness or betterment, great. If I'm writing strictly to get money, think. It's likely that I would go from there to spend more time with the product and try to get convicted. Another sign is if I'm writing exclusively to the greed or fear buttons. Don't get me wrong. I get pretty wild in my copy and hit fear and greed pretty darned hard, sometimes. If that's all that occurs to me, something's up. It may be a sign of burn out or something like that. But it may be a moral dilema.

Are you asleep, yet?


Peter Stone