How to endorse a book without losing your soul

4 guidelines for injecting integrity into the practice.

This week, I wrote an essay for Christianity Today about book endorsements, in the Aftermath of The Article. If I say “The Article” and you have no idea what I’m talking about — well first, bless. You may skip down a few paragraphs.

Second, if you don’t know but want to, or want a primer: The website The Gospel Coalition (TGC) published an excerpt from a forthcoming book on sex authored by pastor Joshua Ryan Butler. Many readers criticized the article for misinterpreting the metaphor Paul draws in Ephesians 5 between marriage and Christ and the church. Pauls himself says that leaving and cleaving is a “profound mystery.” Yet there definitely could have been more mystery in the article’s description of sex. Critics said it was pornographic, dishonoring of women, and provided a theological rationale for abuse.

In response, TGC unpublished the article, and two ministry leaders, Dennae Pierre and …