Last Edit: 2024

Principles and Goals

We are a global community driven by evangelical conviction to advance the stories and ideas of the kingdom of God. Christianity Today pursues the highest standards of truth-telling as a service to all of our readers, listeners, and viewers. Trustworthiness, fairness, respect, honesty, and courage are among the values we lift up because of both our commitment to professional journalistic standards and our commitment to biblical truth, charity, and love. Our determination to present the enduring truths of the gospel does not undercut but deepens our determination to tell the truth about ourselves and the world.

Our work is biblically rooted and beautifully orthodox, globally engaged and thoughtfully diverse, surprisingly creative and always inspired by love for Christ and his church. That work manifests itself in a range of editorial expressions, such as theological essays, opinion features, investigative stories, multimedia experiences, database resources, and breaking news reports. Our different content types have their own strengths and purposes, but all reflect a consistent commitment to journalistic values that testify to truth, assure our integrity, and build trust with our listeners, viewers, and readers.

Our content should model the journalistic excellence readers expect from top news organizations and the Christlike integrity they expect from the church. We demonstrate our care for our readers, our sources, and the church when we publish stories that are carefully checked for accuracy, presented fairly, significant for ministry, and independent from the influence of our financial supporters. As fallen human beings, we will get things wrong. When we do, we acknowledge our errors, correct them transparently, and attempt to learn from our errors with grace and humility.

The Bible emphasizes telling the truth accurately: never fearing or manufacturing it, always pursuing and receiving it. God has revealed the truth about himself in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. Through his Holy Spirit he has revealed the truth about all we need to believe and practice to participate in his kingdom and become more like him. We approach this truth in confident humility, with certainty concerning the things we have been taught (Luke 1:4) and acknowledgement that exhaustive and fully objective knowledge will remain outside our grasp. We only know in part (1 Cor. 13:12) what is happening in the world and what God is doing, but he promises that those who seek truth will find it. So we are honest, courageous, and rigorous in seeking and disseminating truth, “carefully investigat[ing] everything from the beginning” to present an orderly account (Luke 1:3). 

Ethical Expectations of Staff and Freelancers

We expect staffers and freelancers to: 

• Test and verify the accuracy of their own work and of claims made by their sources (1 Thess. 5:21, Prov. 14:15). Identify clearly their sources of information. Always attribute (Rom. 13:7). When referencing information gained from private documents, explain how they were obtained. 
• Give subjects the opportunity to respond to criticism or allegations of wrongdoing (Prov. 18:17). Whenever possible, they should have the opportunity to respond to charges point by point. 
• Pursue stories with integrity, humility, and compassion. Pursuit of the truth is not a license for arrogance or lurid curiosity. When we characterize beliefs and positions antithetical to those of Christianity Today, those characterized should recognize themselves in the descriptions. 
• Seek sources who have infrequent access to power and press, especially in stories where they are directly affected. Giving special attention to the poor and needy does not compromise fairness and attempts at factual objectivity (Prov. 31:8-9). 
• Since we do not see politics as ultimate, we do not sacrifice evangelical witness for election outcomes or hold different standards for different parties or politicians. We do not place ideology over theology. 
• Be willing to cover sorrow and tragedy. The Bible speaks frankly of sin and suffering.
• Recognize that private people have a greater right to privacy than public figures who seek power, influence, or attention. We take special care when dealing with inexperienced sources. We respect the privacy of children, intrude on moments of grief only when the public has a justifiable need to see, and are cautious about giving names of criminal suspects before the filing of charges.
• Recognize that it’s increasingly easy to use artificial intelligence and manipulated images and sound to mislead audiences and misrepresent subjects. We do not assume that what looks and sounds true actually is. 

Likewise, there are things staffers and freelancers should avoid: 

• Staff members who shape our editorial coverage are prohibited from making donations to, or otherwise advocating on behalf of, political parties or candidates. They may vote their conscience but should maintain a biblical journalistic objectivity to speak the truth in all directions. 
• Do not distort, exaggerate, or sensationalize to attract a larger audience (Ex. 20:16). Do not make up quotations or scenes. 
• Do not fall into conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose to supervisors and the public where loyalties may be divided and consider recusal as appropriate. We never skew editorial content for personal gain, to help Christianity Today’s finances, or to please those who fund us. 
• Do not grant anonymity except when absolutely necessary to gain critical information. When granting anonymity, explain why and characterize the source’s reliability as much as possible. 
• Do not allow sources, interviewees, or others to read stories in advance. 
• Do not promise favorable coverage in return for source cooperation. 
• Do not accept gifts or special treatment that may compromise journalistic integrity. We accept books and other materials for review purposes on the grounds that review copies do not guarantee coverage, nor should free review copies receive special treatment. Likewise, travel and access provided by individuals and institutions in the course of reporting or other editorial processes do not guarantee coverage or any release of editorial control. Since junkets may give the appearance of collaboration, journalists should discuss acceptance with supervisors. 
• Do not use surreptitious newsgathering techniques, including hidden cameras or microphones, unless their use is essential to obtaining stories of significant public importance. In that case, we tell our audiences what we have done and why. 
• Do not break into offices, steal documents, hack computer files, or tap telephones to get a scoop. On the other hand, government authorities have no right to requisition notebooks, interview materials, documents, or any other work product. None should be turned over to those outside the organization except under legal order.
• Do not plagiarize (Ex. 20:15, 21). Cite sources by publication name and (when writing online) link to the article used. Do not take anything word for word from another publication unless you put it in quotation marks and cite the source—and whatever you take that way should be brief.

Commitments to Readers, Listeners, and Viewers

Christianity Today sees its readers, listeners, and viewers not as a demographic to market to but as the people we serve with formational information about God and his world. Those readers, listeners, and viewers must have confidence that we publish stories because they are true, not because they benefit our benefactors and friends. The value of Christianity Today to our sources of funding—advertisers, sponsors, grantors, or donors—depends on the trust that our readers, listeners, viewers, and members place with us.

As an organization and as individuals, we aim to ensure that our work is independent and trustworthy. We maintain strict separation (the news industry term is a firewall) between editorial decisions and sources of all revenue. Decisions about what we cover and how we do our work are made by our editorial staff, not by those who provide financial support. Editorial independence isn’t just about the words that appear in a story, but how we select our stories, whom we select to write them, how and when we present them to our readers, how we title them, and how we promote them.

We accept gifts, grants, and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but we make our editorial judgments (including but not limited to news judgments) independently and not on the basis of financial support. We sometimes accept funding to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of all aspects of coverage, from what we cover to how we cover it. We never accept funding for specific story ideas. We cede no right of review or influence of editorial content. We deny favored treatment to actual or potential sources of funding and resist pressure to influence coverage. 

All advertising content must be clearly distinguishable from editorial content. It should not attempt to mimic Christianity Today’s appearance or hide its provenance. Since some readers, listeners, or viewers might confuse advertising with editorial content, we will explicitly label advertising as such wherever the user will encounter it.

When we create content to attract advertisers or sponsors, we label it as advertising even if it is not directly funded by an advertiser or group of advertisers. It will include a disclaimer stating that the material was created by (or on behalf of) the advertisers “and not by Christianity Today editorial staff.” In some cases, Christianity Today may add additional clarifications to label sponsor content clearly.

We welcome funding from Christian individuals and institutions as well as non-Christian individuals and institutions who believe in the importance of our work, but we make clear before receiving a gift or grant that we fiercely protect our editorial independence and will return the gift if the individual or institution seeks undue influence over coverage. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of our funders, be they donors, advertisers, sponsors, or grantors. Nor does it constitute implied or actual endorsement of their products, services, or opinions. Nevertheless, we reserve the right to accept or decline advertisements and sponsorships and will refuse any external messaging that we know to be misleading, inaccurate, at odds with our statement of faith, or likely to harm our users.

As a global community that is part of a reform movement within the church, Christianity Today sometimes partners with other organizations on events and initiatives. Such partnerships will not influence our editorial decisions, including whether to include the partner in editorial coverage. Where partnerships result in shared content, we will tell our readers about the nature of the relationship with our partner and the extent to which editorial teams were involved in the creation of the content. 

CT will consider unintended conflicts that may arise. We will describe partnerships in which an outside organization simply provides funding for content as either grants (in which the funder does not influence the content) or sponsor content (in which they do). In such cases, we will identify the funder as a funder or a sponsor, not as a partner.

Conclusion

Alongside biblical teaching, documents from the following organizations have helped in the formation of these standards: Society of Professional Journalists, Chalkbeat, The Marshall Project, Institute for Nonprofit News, National Press Photographers Association, Radio Television Digital News Association, ProPublica, The Washington Post, The Arizona Republic, Detroit Free Press, World, and Associated Press.

Ethics codes by their nature cannot be exhaustive or answer every challenge. Our goal with this document is to provide clear guidelines and principles, and to spark additional conversation about how we can best serve our readers, listeners, and viewers—as well as the church and the larger public—with integrity and with the truth. To this end, Christianity Today solicits prayer, support, and constructive criticism.