Statement on Publishing and Dialog
Since Energion Publications first opened for business in the fall of 2004, we have supported dialog and free speech. We have aimed to publish a variety of viewpoints in order to help our readers develop an understanding of how people come to these views, and how to make intelligent, practical choices between various ideas.
As a United States-based publisher, we strongly support the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. That prohibits the government from inhibiting free speech. It also provides an effective right of editorial control by publishers as they choose what views they will allow on their platforms. This right, we believe, should apply whether the publisher in question is small or large. Similarly, the public has a legal right to decline to listen to particular viewpoints.
While we enjoy that protection, our policy on dialog and the exchange of ideas is the result of our convictions. We publish a variety of viewpoints because we consider that a good idea. We also believe it is a good idea for readers and viewers to study and consider a variety of viewpoints and to avoid getting stuck in an echo chamber. It doesn’t matter what viewpoint is espoused in the echo chamber. It doesn’t even matter if the folks in the echo chamber happen to be right. Being stuck there will eventually be destructive of one’s ability to test ideas and correct errors.
This is why, while we have a doctrinal statement for our main imprint, Energion Publications, we use that statement as a definition of our audience, not a test of an author’s orthodoxy. We judge manuscripts, not people, and we judge those manuscripts by the audience addressed, and by the way the audience is addressed, not by our estimate of the author’s correctness.
In 2021, Energion Publications will broaden our audience, while keeping our mission to educate, energize, and empower central. We will create an umbrella company, Energion Infomedia. Energion Publications, with its same personnel and mission, will be an imprint under that new umbrela. The mission of Energion Infomedia will be to help expand and improve education for all, not just a religious audience.
In doing so we will maintain our aim to provide a variety of materials that are designed to generate more effective dialog.
We note that there are certain materials that we will not publish:
- Materials that advocate violence or illegal activities, apart from appropriate actions in self-defense. We do strongly support the right to protest peacefully.
- Materials that try to cut off or shut down dialog.
- Materials that are primarily negative in content, and lack a positive goal.
We greatly appreciate our authors and readers, and hope to serve you more effectively as we grow.
