Ghostwriting and Research Assistants

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Pastor John, you addressed ghostwriting back in July.

00:00:07.460 | That was an Ask Pastor John episode 129,

00:00:09.580 | and there you strongly opposed ghostwriting,

00:00:11.900 | and you continue to strongly oppose ghostwriting

00:00:14.420 | in all of its forms.

00:00:16.160 | But you recently mentioned that you have more to say

00:00:17.780 | on ghostwriting than what we covered in that podcast episode

00:00:20.460 | so please share with us your new thinking here.

00:00:22.820 | - First of all, this is not about Mark Driscoll.

00:00:27.780 | Mark is a friend and he's dealt graciously with me

00:00:31.540 | over the years and I wanna do the same for him.

00:00:33.660 | I don't know how Mark does his writing.

00:00:35.980 | I know his name's been in the center stage.

00:00:39.220 | That's not my point.

00:00:41.340 | I wanna trust Mark to do what's right.

00:00:44.740 | My comments are about the much wider phenomenon

00:00:48.540 | because this thing about ghostwriting

00:00:49.980 | goes back as far as publishing goes

00:00:51.720 | and it is right across the board

00:00:54.560 | in secular and Christian publishing

00:00:57.340 | and in my mind it's a scandal.

00:01:00.500 | And I would like to encourage myself,

00:01:03.560 | 'cause it relates to me,

00:01:05.540 | I don't use any ghostwriters in my books,

00:01:07.500 | but I'm tempted now and then

00:01:09.060 | to have somebody write a letter for me

00:01:11.140 | or something like that.

00:01:11.980 | So I just wanna preach to myself here

00:01:13.900 | and to all the others who care about this.

00:01:17.660 | I Googled an issue on this yesterday

00:01:22.480 | and the first thing that came up

00:01:24.540 | was a business called a Premier Publishing Services Firm

00:01:29.540 | and the first promise they made goes this,

00:01:32.220 | this is a direct quote, first line, you can find it,

00:01:34.540 | "Maximize your time.

00:01:36.260 | "We have invested thousands of hours

00:01:38.420 | "to find the best ghostwriters in the business."

00:01:41.460 | Close quote.

00:01:42.620 | In other words, come to us,

00:01:44.060 | we'll get your book published

00:01:45.340 | and you don't even have to write it,

00:01:46.880 | just sign it and that's the way the world runs.

00:01:50.140 | That's not, Tony, I don't think that's the way of Christ

00:01:53.820 | and I wanna encourage us against that.

00:01:56.380 | I had a seminary teacher who told us

00:02:00.500 | that he wrote books for famous evangelicals

00:02:04.820 | whose books gave not the slightest indication

00:02:07.860 | of his involvement.

00:02:09.940 | I could go right to the person and right to the leader,

00:02:13.960 | some of them are still living today,

00:02:15.700 | and make the connection there.

00:02:19.300 | And so I ask, where does this practice come from?

00:02:22.460 | And I'll tell you where I think it comes from.

00:02:24.700 | It comes from the love of money over truth.

00:02:28.020 | Big names sell books, ghostwriters don't sell.

00:02:33.020 | So to sell books and make money,

00:02:35.960 | you conceal the real writer.

00:02:38.480 | Believe me, I mean, I hope everybody would see this.

00:02:43.780 | If books sold more copies

00:02:47.580 | by putting the name of the ghostwriter on the cover,

00:02:50.800 | it would be on the cover.

00:02:52.120 | Nobody doubts that.

00:02:54.000 | That's what it's about.

00:02:55.620 | So here's my deepest problem with this.

00:02:58.480 | When Jesus saves us and puts his spirit in us,

00:03:03.340 | he writes the truth on our hearts.

00:03:06.140 | He inclines us to the way of truth.

00:03:08.620 | He makes us happy to be dependent people.

00:03:12.900 | He makes us eager to magnify him

00:03:16.180 | by exposing our dependence, not our independence,

00:03:20.140 | not our self-sufficiency, not our super giftedness.

00:03:23.540 | He makes us humble.

00:03:25.940 | He makes us eager to take less credit and give more credit.

00:03:30.940 | So here's my question

00:03:32.520 | for everybody who's tempted in this direction.

00:03:34.960 | Why are so many big name authors asking this?

00:03:40.140 | How much is legally and ethically legitimate

00:03:43.100 | to conceal about how I write?

00:03:45.960 | Instead of asking, how many people can I thank

00:03:50.960 | in as many ways as possible

00:03:52.840 | for the part they played in this book?

00:03:54.740 | Why aren't they asking, how can I increase my joy

00:04:00.320 | by giving the most credit possible

00:04:02.800 | to all the help I received?

00:04:04.880 | Why aren't they asking, how can I maximize

00:04:08.120 | the exposure of my dependence on God's grace

00:04:12.580 | in the work of other people?

00:04:14.880 | How can I look as dependent as I really am?

00:04:17.880 | Why aren't they asking that?

00:04:18.840 | How can I look more dependent

00:04:20.820 | instead of look more self-sufficient?

00:04:23.240 | Like I don't need anybody.

00:04:25.440 | Why aren't we asking, how can I boast

00:04:28.960 | in as many weaknesses as I have?

00:04:31.240 | Since Jesus said, "My power is made perfect in weakness."

00:04:35.220 | So Paul didn't conclude,

00:04:36.480 | "Therefore I will conceal my weaknesses."

00:04:39.520 | Therefore I will conceal all the dependence

00:04:41.840 | that I have on other people

00:04:43.040 | and I will make it look like I do all my work.

00:04:45.520 | Why would we even think such a thing?

00:04:47.940 | What he said was, "I will boast all the more gladly

00:04:51.320 | "in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ

00:04:53.860 | "may rest upon me."

00:04:55.000 | If you are weak enough to need a ghostwriter,

00:04:57.360 | boast in it, boast in it.

00:04:59.400 | Jesus gets credit for your weakness.

00:05:02.720 | Ghostwriting is the opposite of boasting in weakness.

00:05:06.260 | Weakness, weak dependence on others doesn't sell books.

00:05:11.360 | So ghostwriting is the love of money

00:05:13.840 | more than the magnifying of Christ

00:05:15.940 | through the exposure of our weakness.

00:05:17.300 | That's my take on what's going on here.

00:05:20.160 | Jesus said, "True greatness is not being served, but serving."

00:05:25.100 | People who publish books under their own name

00:05:28.100 | that they did not write are pretending to serve

00:05:31.680 | when in fact they are being served

00:05:33.720 | without giving any credit to the real person

00:05:36.880 | who's the servant and that is the ghostwriter.

00:05:40.140 | It's just not true greatness.

00:05:41.620 | It's not greatness in the author, the so-called author.

00:05:45.780 | It's not greatness in the publisher.

00:05:47.060 | They should be ashamed of themselves.

00:05:48.460 | And it's not greatness in the ghostwriter

00:05:50.140 | who's willing to be used in this way and be paid for it.

00:05:54.000 | So I urge my brothers and sisters,

00:05:57.300 | and yes, sisters are involved in this,

00:05:59.840 | and shame on them too.

00:06:01.620 | I urge my brothers and sisters to repent

00:06:05.180 | and for Jesus' sake to turn away

00:06:08.140 | from this sub-Christian practice.

00:06:11.900 | - Yes, I love it when John Frame cites in a footnote

00:06:15.180 | of a thick theology book some paper

00:06:17.180 | that he received from a classroom student.

00:06:19.100 | - Yes, sweet.

00:06:20.940 | - Okay, here's a follow-up.

00:06:22.460 | This ghostwriting discussion is pressing to the foreground

00:06:24.740 | questions about the legitimate place of research assistance.

00:06:28.700 | How do you think through this related issue?

00:06:31.180 | - I'm all in favor of getting as much help as I can.

00:06:33.860 | I'm a needy person.

00:06:35.540 | I read slow, and so assistance seems to me

00:06:40.020 | to be a biblical thing.

00:06:41.620 | The hand cannot say to the eye, I have no need of you.

00:06:46.140 | I need your assistance, Mr. Hand.

00:06:49.260 | So getting assistance is of the very essence

00:06:53.420 | of being a needy person.

00:06:55.100 | But a needy person and a humble person

00:06:57.740 | who's loved by Christ will want to honor

00:07:02.520 | the giftedness of his assistants, right?

00:07:05.660 | And so he'll say what they did for him

00:07:10.000 | in whatever way he can.

00:07:11.220 | He'll glory to say it.

00:07:12.380 | He won't feel pressure to say it.

00:07:14.580 | That's one thing.

00:07:15.420 | The second thing is when assistants write up their research,

00:07:20.420 | some of them are not just giving you page numbers

00:07:27.160 | and quotes, they're weaving it all together

00:07:30.420 | with interpretation and language.

00:07:33.740 | And I think that should be called out in the text

00:07:38.740 | wherever we are using a stream of thought

00:07:43.420 | that we got from our assistants or his actual words

00:07:47.140 | so that we're just lavish with our willingness

00:07:52.140 | and eagerness to give credit where credit is due.

00:07:55.260 | And if it gets to the point where the assistant

00:07:59.300 | has really produced most of this fresh thought,

00:08:03.580 | just put both your names on the front of the book.

00:08:05.940 | I mean, it's just so right to put John Piper

00:08:10.160 | with David Mathis or something like that,

00:08:13.060 | who's worked with me on several books

00:08:15.100 | that have come out of the DG conferences

00:08:18.220 | that we were both part of this.

00:08:19.980 | So those are the three degrees, I would think,

00:08:24.020 | three steps that you would follow

00:08:26.280 | if you had an assistant working for you like that.

00:08:29.460 | - Thank you, Pastor John.

00:08:30.300 | And thank you for listening to this podcast.

00:08:32.260 | With the new year upon us comes with it

00:08:34.900 | the lingering old question,

00:08:36.740 | to set or to not set New Year's resolutions.

00:08:40.140 | We'll tackle that question tomorrow.

00:08:41.700 | Until then, please email your questions to us

00:08:43.340 | at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

00:08:45.220 | And you can visit us online at desiringgod.org

00:08:47.720 | to find thousands of books, articles, sermons,

00:08:49.620 | and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge.

00:08:52.180 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.

00:08:53.260 | Thanks for listening.

00:08:54.260 | (upbeat music)

00:08:56.840 | (upbeat music)

00:08:59.420 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Ghostwriting and Research Assistants

Chapters