Considering a Pitch to "Christianity Today"

Taylor Harbin

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I've been reflecting on an experience I had earlier this year, which I'd like to write about and shop around before consigning it to a blog post. Christianity Today seems to be a good fit, since they publish a variety of articles, including opinion pieces. I'm still getting familiar with their website and the voice/length. Meanwhile, I'd like to start working on a pitch, since they prefer that instead of taking unsolicited manuscripts. So, I was wondering if anyone has experience dealing with them?

Here's a brief synopsis of what happened:

Bret Cavenaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court brought the abortion debate back into the limelight. Local radio stations began rehashing the story of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who I had never heard of before (the film about his life was coming out soon). One such broadcast featured a talk from someone who observed the trial, and she described his crimes in lurid detail. The more I learned, the angrier (and nauseated) I became. By happenstance, my job at a state park required me to write up a new mock trial program. This meant that I had to learn a lot of legalese. I began watching real trial footage to see how things like objections and motions were handled. I stumbled upon footage of Jeffrey Dahmer's trial and thought, "Hey, isn't that the one who converted?" I then learned that the man who baptized him was still alive and had written a book about his experience. In reading the book, and investigating whether or not Dahmer himself was a sincere convert, I was able to come to terms with my anger and adapt a healthier, more compassionate perspective.

Doesn't sound like much of a story on paper, but the experience has stuck with me, so why not at least try?


As one who has never written non-fiction like this before in any capacity, I welcome suggestions.
 

cornflake

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Fair warning, I've never had any dealings with Christianity Today, or other religious pubs., so there may be guidelines or specific religious themes they want included, or stuff they specifically don't want included, I dunno. I'm just talking about mag pieces, which I do have a lot of experience with, in general.

I'd suggest starting with a throughline, or like how it'd be blurbed on a cover or site. The way you're describing it here, I'm not sure what you're pitching. Is it how you found an unexpected avenue to understanding forgiveness or to understanding people through extreme examples, or about how you learned to be compassionate and manage your everyday anger through experiencing anger about things that didn't affect you or... whatever it is, however you'd put it. What would a one-sentence pitch or blurb about it be?

Then try working outward from that. What was the beginning, what's the end, what connects them?
 

Chris P

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I don't have any experience publishing with them either (or even reading their material), but from a general reader standpoint, I'm much more interested in personal experiences than in pieces that simply say "something happened I didn't understand/ I had questions about this and that, so I looked into it/ someone explained it to me, and such-and-such seemed to make sense." The latter is what you see in a lot of blog posts, and in a few utterly forgettable faith journey memoirs I've read, while the former sticks with me when it's real people living real life and experiencing faith in a transformative way. It sounds like you have had this experience, and if you frame it that way rather than as purely educational you will have something I would read.

As with any outlet, read read read as much as you can from it, and if the editor has a blog or has done interviews read those too. Christianity comes in all flavors, so if you can get an idea of the ideology of the editor that will help. (Aside: years ago I subscribed to Christian Single, which has a very evangelical mega-church bent. A good portion of the letters to the editor focused on whether certain past articles were scripturally sound or not, or questioned the "safety" of the people featured. Not all mags are like this, but was an interesting education.)

ETA: Please do write this. Even if you end up not finding a home for it, I think it's something you need to write. Feed that curiosity and exploration!
 
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Taylor Harbin

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Corn: I think your first suggestion is closer to what I was trying to say: learning forgiveness through unexpected and extreme examples.

Chris P: the difficulty with CT is that they have a LOT of content, so I’m still trying to figure out what section features what kind of article. I sure like to think it was a genuine experience, even though it was internal (I’m not a minister, and living in a small town in Arkansas I haven’t had a chance to engage with a lot of folks who have radically different views; I guess they was part of it, putting human faces on these things).

I will certainly write this! My first idea was to write a retrospective on Dahmer (November marks the 25th anniversary of his death) but then realized that would be disingenuous. Somebody who is more knowledgeable than me will take that up. Luckily, I keep a daily journal and can draw on it for the piece.
 

cornflake

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Yeah, I would not do a retrospective on something like that unless you're very well-versed. Also not sure what CT would want with it, unless it was talking about like, suicide, goodness, yada I dunno.