Capitalizing on God

Certain things create tension between authors and editors. Comma placement can lead to arguments, and once in a while “lie” and “lay” will stir up trouble, but those situations are usually easy to resolve. One issue that can be a little bit tricky is the capitalization of “God.” It’s not easy convincing someone they are wrong when they think they have religion on their side.

Most authors are quite happy to (correctly) capitalize only the first letter when referring to the specific deity, or as some call him, the “Big Guy.” However, a few writers insist on capitalizing the whole word: GOD. Some go so far as to use all caps for any pronouns or any other “important” words referring to God or anything associated with God: HE, HIS, LOVE, GRACE, etc. I find this annoying, not to mention wrong. It gets worse if Jesus makes an appearance. You get sentences like: Out of HIS everlasting LOVE and MERCY, GOD sent HIS SON JESUS … This is not very reader friendly.

I try to convince authors that the use of all caps in this case is not necessary, that it makes the text more difficult to read, that if they want a publisher to take them seriously they should think about playing by the rules. I quote Chicago 8.98, 8.100, and 8.102. Most authors listen. Still, some are convinced that they absolutely must use all caps to show honor and respect. I disagree—strongly. I think using all caps in this way looks silly and amateurish. As a reader, I would have a hard time taking the argument of such a book seriously (actually I wouldn’t even bother to read a book that overuses all caps).

Once I was accused of attacking an author’s religious beliefs in my de-capitalization quest. “Even Hitler’s name has the first letter capitalized,” he told me. So by trying to apply widely accepted standards I was somehow equating God with Hitler? I did not buy that argument. (And by the way, I ended up losing the argument entirely and missed out on the pleasure of editing that particular book. Drat!)

I am admittedly not a religious person, but this issue has nothing to do with religion. It doesn’t even come down to what is “right” or “wrong.” Readability is what’s at stake. Assuming you want someone to actually read your writing, you must make it inviting to the reader. Paragraphs infused with words that scream in all caps are not very inviting—unless you enjoy being screamed at. In my experience, most readers do not enjoy being screamed at, so I will continue my efforts to convince authors that God is probably quite happy to see his name capitalized correctly. Amen.