-Should Christians have to pay for the electricity they use? What if the church was able to run an extension chord from a nearby business without the business knowing? Would this be OK if nobody noticed?
-Suppose the church needs pews for people to sit in. If someone knows a Christian pew company, should that company be expected to give the pews to the church for free?
-If the church has a weekly dinner to feed the homeless and share the good news to them, is it OK to take the food that is prepared from a local grocer without paying.
-Is it OK to make illegal copies of music in order to build up God's Kingdom?
Let me say, that in my opinion, the answer to all of these is NO.
Most of the professional writers I know are not wealthy. They are ordinary people who spend years developing their writing craft in the hope of one day being able to support their families through the work they do. In most cases, when a writer has a song accepted for publication they are not paid any money until it is published and sold. Even then, it is a very small portion of the selling cost and is for the actual amount of copies sold.
When music or other creative work is copied illegally, it discourages the publishing of new works, steals the income that the writer has rightly earned, and takes away a "real" person's ability to support their family with honest and Godly work.
My friend, Jang W. Choi, is currently working to educate the people of his area as to the ethical responsibilities that Christians have to not steal the creative work of others. He is a man of courage and has faced criticism from individuals, churches, and Christian companies for his stance. Yet, this problem is not isolated to a particular country or area of the world. Recently, some writers from Europe complained to me of problems they had getting royalties from the U.S. I've personally been in quite a few churches that have files full of copied music. It hurts when I see the names of some of my friends on this music.
Earlier, I mentioned my friend who co-wrote a song that is being performed all over the world and which is being sold in every imaginable music genre and how he has not yet seen a single penny from its use. The song that I mention is entitled, "Without Love... We Have Nothing," and I was the other composer of this song.
James M. Stevens
Christian Today
Senior Music and Culture Advisor
Dr. James Michael Stevens is a prolific musician and published composer of over 200 songs. Winner of numerous ASCAP Standard Awards for Composition, he has formally served as President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee as Chairman of the Music Department at Free Will Baptist Bible College.
www.jamesmstevens.com
jstevens@fwbbc.edu
