matt_doyle: (embarrassed)
matt_doyle ([personal profile] matt_doyle) wrote2011-10-19 04:50 pm

Brief lament.

So there's a quarterly newspaper that the local Baptist Church sends out to everyone in the Fargo area, and it showed up in mailbox today.  As I read it, with the intent of grumpily critiquing poor theology, I wound up less annoyed and more saddened:  there were typographical and usage errors everywhere.  Incorrect verb plurals, comma splices, missing commas, passive voice, incorrect verb tense... a classic case of Not Having A Competent Copyeditor.  And this is a periodical published only once every season -- would it kill them to have someone competent from their congregation take three hours (ten minutes per page) to sort out the more egregious errors?  The printing looks quite professional, and they must send out something like a hundred thousand copies, so one assumes they could squeeze an editor into their budget.

For a moment, I thought about emailing the pastor in charge and volunteering (provided I receive some modest financial recompense.  Call it $25 an issue, maybe).

Then I looked over the slipshod theology again, as well as the implicit sexism, biological determinism, opposition to social justice, and inconsistent hermeneutics, and I realized that I really didn't want to make these people more credible or effective communicators.

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