Evangelical Christians are the world's worst about meeting deadlines. I would occasionally use a Roman Catholic writer for an article that fit his abilities well. I would also use women as writers. But evangelical men were the world's worst at meeting deadlines. But I found the secret. If they were long overdue I would write to their wife. It never failed. No wife ever let me down. It seems they were very happy to enter into any conspiracy against their lawful spouse. The only time I ran into trouble was with one bachelor. He was notorious for not meeting deadlines and not submitting things at all. But I was on name terms with his dog. His dog was my friend, a German Shepherd. So I wrote to his dog. The man's name was Reynolds and his dog's name predictably was Joseph. So I got a huge post card and wrote on it with very large letters "To Joseph Reynolds, Esquire." I said to the dog, "Please remind your master that he is four months overdue." This guy sent the material the next week.
The enlightening story above comes from an interview with J. D. Douglas in the Reformation & Revival Journal (Volume 12, No 4, Fall 2003, pp. 141-168) James Dixon Douglas (1922-2003) was a long time editor, for example, editor of Christianity Today from 1961 to 1983, and chief editor overseeing The New Bible Dictionary. Of him, David F. Wright said at his memorial service that he was "strikingly proud of his lowly origins. These years left him with not only an addiction to fish and chips but also an aversion from high-falutin, from self-important conceit and empty show. He became a master at puncturing pretentiousness, at pricking inflated balloons, often playfully but never cruelly."
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