Copyright Pitch Meeting - 4

Selling Jesus

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00:01

So, you have another ministry we can monetize? Yes sir, I do.

00:07

I was thinking we monetize the permission to share the truth, or basically any Christian teaching. Wow, I already love the way this is going.

00:14

What do we call this idea? Copyright. Oh, okay. We're going to charge people money to get permission to use all the

00:21

Christian books our ministry is producing. Darn right we are. We're going to put a legal notice on everything we publish that talks about the gospel, or Jesus, or the

00:30

Bible in any way. And what will that notice say? All rights reserved, meaning that no one who buys it will have the right to share it with anyone.

00:38

You see, this is the problem with digital books especially. It costs people nothing to copy them, so they've been doing that.

00:44

And the spread of the truth is starting to get out of control. You mean solid Christian teaching about Jesus is starting to go viral?

00:51

It is sir. Oh no, this has got to stop right now. I agree. And that's why we're going to threaten to sue anyone who shares what we're publishing about God without our permission.

01:02

As Matthew 28 says, go into all the world and sell discipleship materials to all nations, copywriting them in the name of the publisher.

01:12

That does sound like the Bible, but doesn't the Greek there actually mean, as you go?

01:17

Wow sir, I'm pretty sure you're the first person in human history to have ever made that observation. You're probably right.

01:24

So I bet it's going to be really hard to get people to accept and submit to this kind of idea. I mean, for basically all of Christian history, people haven't copyrighted their writing, and the more it spread, the more happy they were.

01:34

Actually, it's going to be super easy. Barely an inconvenience. Oh really? You, my friend, are the superhero the church has needed for centuries.

01:45

Thank you so much sir. So you're saying that once we smack people around with the don't muzzle the ox verse, they'll eagerly comply with our pious plan?

01:53

200 % sir. People freaking love hearing about oxen. I've never seen it not work.

01:58

Amazing. But what if people tell us that this new idea of, what did you call it?

02:04

Copyright. Copyright, yes. What if people tell us that copyright may have unintended consequences for the growth of the global church?

02:11

Like, if people aren't free to translate one of our books for their people and share it, won't we be guilty of the sin of partiality?

02:17

Wouldn't more people potentially be blessed if we didn't lock everything down? Well, we simply tell those people that God needs our help to protect the truth.

02:25

By copywriting it, nothing bad will ever happen to our good content. You mean it'll never get pirated in any way.

02:32

Exactly sir. Everyone knows that because Hollywood copyrights their movies, no one has ever pirated a movie in all of human history.

02:39

And everyone also knows that the biblical writers like Moses and Paul stamped big fat copyright notices on their books, which is the only reason the

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Bible was never corrupted over the course of thousands of years. Copyright sovereignly protects all content from ever being abused.

02:54

It's practically better than God at stopping the bad guys. Oh boy, now I sense a profound need to get a tattoo that says, in copyright we trust.

03:04

Yeah, that's what I teach my kids. I say, kids, always remember that the good book says some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in copyright protection.

03:14

Are you sure the verse actually says that? I literally have no way to check that. But what about the people who say we should take risks for the spread of God's kingdom?

03:22

Well, they're definitely deceived. You gotta understand that we live in a broken world. God expects us to live every moment out of fear of what might possibly happen in any given situation and act accordingly.

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Uhhhh. Let me tell you something, sir. The Christian life is best lived by fear. As the good book says, without fear no one can please

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God. You need to think of all the bad things that could possibly happen and make all your decisions out of the fear of those possibilities.

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It doesn't matter if a billion people could be blessed by a certain choice. If there's just one tiny bad thing that might happen, then you need to avoid doing it.

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That's how Jesus taught us to live. Avoid risk at all costs. Never sacrifice. Always think of what's in your best interest.

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And always remember that a life lived out of fear is a truly fulfilling, God -honoring life.

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I wrote a whole book about it called The Fear -Driven Life. Have you sold a lot of copies of that book? Well, actually not yet.

04:17

My mom bought most of the copies that have sold so far, but I'm sure it'll take off soon. You know, I'm not sure all this stuff about fear is completely resonating with the microscopic shred of suppressed conscience that may or may not be in here somewhere.

04:32

What are we doing here, man? Sir, remember money? Oh, money, money, money, money, money. Exactly, sir.

04:38

And once we have a giant silo of restricted Christian resources, we can distribute them only as we see fit to those we like and who are willing to pay for us to grant them permission through custom licenses.

04:48

You see, we in the West, who have the most biblical resources, need to be good stewards of them, which means adopting a classical colonialist mentality by maintaining absolute control over what less fortunate people in other countries can do with the beautiful things

05:04

God has revealed in His Word and through His servants. But in another conversation, you said that people in other countries aren't less fortunate than we are.

05:12

Oh, dang it. Whoops. Whoopsie. So you're saying that the best way for us to stay wealthy,

05:18

I mean sustainable, and to keep solid Christian teaching from having an exponential impact is by restricting the ability to share and translate it without our permission.

05:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we'll give most people permission if they ask, right? Oh, sure, sure. Right away. They won't have to understand complex legality issues or wait for months at a time for us to answer them.

05:39

Really? Actually, no. They'll be lucky if we ever answer anyone's phone calls or emails at all.

05:44

Okay. And if we ever do, it'll take months, if not years. And if some people have the patience for that, we'll serve them with long contracts involving complex legal terms and requirements that they've probably never heard of.

05:56

So, yeah. Most people will never bother again after one of those experiences. Well, as long as we can keep people believing that we're trying to serve the

06:05

Church, I guess this'll all work out. Hey, everyone.

06:12

If that video made you curious, confused, or even offended you, you're not alone. So, let me point you to some free resources that will help you dig deeper into these issues.

06:20

Links down below. First, head on over to thedorianprinciple .org and read or listen to the book, which is thoroughly biblical in its response to the commercialization of Christianity.

06:31

Second, check out the website, copy .church, where you'll learn even more about these same issues, but from a different angle.

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And finally, don't miss Selling Jesus, which complements this channel. There you'll find a whole lot more to read and learn.

06:45

And hey, if this video upset you, that's okay. But before you leave a comment, please consider thoroughly investigating the deep biblical and historical rationale behind everything on this channel.

06:58

I think you'll be surprised. Thanks so much for watching. And I hope some of you will consider taking part in abolishing the