📧 “Notice” from TSW
I am acknowledging that I have received this email, sent to Shane, Leroy and I. I am also acknowledging that I received your email on Sat, Feb 8th with questions regarding payment to Travis, and Mon Feb 10th letting me know you'd not heard from Zondervan. I have been working on finding answers your question, and trying to get help from Zondervan too.
We still very much believe in the message of the Jesus Bombs and Ice Cream event, and as has always been our hope, want to make it available to as many people as possible. We fully support making the video available as freely as possible and I will work with you and Zondervan/Harper Collins to make that happen.
I have pursued the conversation with Zondervan/Harper Collins and am waiting to hear back. I intend to communicate as promptly as I can.
20200214 @ 1152 to TSW
Thank you for confirming your receipt of these emails. I want to address a few things very briefly for clarity.
"Help from Zondervan" is not reassuring to me, as large corporations like theirs are even more invested in the status quo than a nonprofit like TSW. They will come to YOUR assistance, not to mine. I mention this because I am not interested in holding my cards close to my chest - my religious convictions prevent me from doing so. It is certainly a strategically good idea for TSW to ask for help from Zondervan's legal team (the contract guarantees they will provide free legal representation for certain claims). However, keep in mind that, if they think Shane misrepresented what he knew, then they might turn against TSW to protect themselves. The bottom line is that TSW holds the best cards, but Zondervan is playing with two decks - you should be careful about which ones you play.
My advice would be to agree to negotiate with me before Monday morning and only involve Zondervan if you have really taken stock of how that might go wrong. I'm not asking for money, and what I am asking for actually may expand TSW's platform if Shane can truly be authentic and address the ways his bias has harmed fellow Christians who are or were in the military. That's a community of nearly 30 million people who actually lean progressive, but not so far as to agree that they should feel shame simply for serving in uniform. Shane's rhetoric is not appropriate, even if those 30 million people would defend his right to be inappropriate. He can keep at it, and the TSW can support him, but I will not be associated with it and I object to using my work or likeness to propagate a myopic and dehumanizing version of Christianity.
Secondly, I do not necessarily want JBIC to be free, for the reasons I've stated above. I want unrestricted and unedited access to the footage and I want a public statement or disclosure that Shane has hurt and disregarded communities and people no less loved by God than himself. That might be a public statement, or maybe it's a new event like JBIC, a public debate on the merits and history of Christian soldiers. Be creative, I will know if an idea will satisfy my concerns, TSW just has to commit to it.
On a related note, I asked for confirmation that TSW is interested in negotiating before Monday morning. Reading your email carefully, my sense is that it has not actually what you are saying. If I am wrong and you are saying that TSW wishes to negotiate a new license, let me know. I will want to set measurable goals, like a timeframe, etc. I will assume that you, Caz, have been empowered to speak for TSW as a whole unless you tell me otherwise.
