Some days the material writes itself. As reported by The Washington Post , Mary Stevenson's son claims that as his mother penned the infamous poem, "Footprints in the Sand," he seeks any royalties earned from said literary work.
For those of you who tend to walk away from Christian kitsch, "Footprints in the Sand" describes that moment when two sets of footprints morph into one as Jesus goes from walking beside you to carrying you when you are too weak to carry yourself. Inspirational to many, insipid to others, the poem has been plastered on plaques, postcards, posters, prayer cards, and pretty much anything else that can produce a biblical buck.
As a writer, I sympathize with anyone who has found their work used without their consent for commercial purposes. But in this case, it seems to me that the son is playing footsie with the facts. Raise your hand if you've heard different preachers take the same folksy story and then repeat it with only slight variations, without giving proper credit. Such stories become woven into the oral fabric of American Christianity to the point where no one really knows where and when they first heard this theological tidbit. Also, skim the sermons delivered across the country on any given Sunday by priests and ministers who use a common lectionary, and you'll find very similar themes emerging. Such is the nature of the collective consciousness when guided by the Holy Spirit.
Yes, there are genuine copyright infringement cases, but in this case, I think this dude appears to have stuck his foot in his mouth. Given a claim by Brooklyn journalist and literary sleuth Rachel Aviv that she can trace elements of "Footprints" to a sermon delivered in 1880, one does question whether or not Mary Stevenson's poetic footprints are indeed the earliest fossil record on file. Furthermore, I have to question why her son tiptoed around the issue of copyright given this item was allegedly penned during the Great Depression. While I can't speak for Mary Stevenson, it seems to me that if she had intended to commercialize her work, she or her estate would have secured the necessary copyright a long time ago.
To date, at least a dozen people claim that they received the divine spark that set their pen afire to create these words of wisdom, including one Margaret Fishback Powers, a Canadian poet and "itinerant evangelist" whose marketing efforts appear to have legs. To her credit, she claims to direct what little profits she has made toward her youth ministry programs.
So here's a modest proposal. How about the parties who claim to have penned this prose promise that any profits garnered from the sale of said Footprints be given to, say, the AIDS Walk, where people actually walk the walk?
Becky Garrison will be featured in the upcoming documentary The Ordinary Radicals, directed by Jamie Moffett, co-founder of The Simple Way.
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