Tales from the Christian Darkside

Last week I opined that the
Christian book industry, selling Christian books, should overlay its business
model with the Spirit of God. An unusual topic for a column on publishing, but
it is my conviction.

It is also a prime reason
that the industry is in tough shape these days. Again, we can blame the economy,
but looking inward will produce a more accurate picture.

It seems clear to me that
allowing authors and publishers into the mix — even when they espouse heretical
concepts — sows the seeds of your industry’s collapse. In other words, if
theological integrity is not maintained, failure is sure to follow.

For many years, the
Christian Booksellers’ Association has allowed vendors who do not have a
Christian worldview to display at conventions. Many dozens of books with
heretical themes have now flooded into the stores around the country. Few in
power seem to care, because if The Shack is being sold down the street at X
big-box retailer, then, well, we have to sell it, too.

It is the change in the
floor presence at CBA events that astonishes.

For example, two weeks ago
at the International Christian Retail Show in Denver, Zondervan of course had
its usual large presence. The Grand Rapids-based publisher produces a large
number of mainstream titles each year, and is perhaps best known for its Bibles.
What many “average” Christians do not know is that for 20 years, Zondervan has
been owned by the gigantic New York house, Harper Collins.

When a Christian publisher
is bought-out by a large secular company, it is not possible for the formerly
Christian-owned entity to decide for itself just how Christian it will be.
Profit-and-loss become the all-consuming drivers.

At Zondervan, for every Anne
Graham Lotz, there are 10 others who practice a center-left Christianity. Gary
Burge, the Wheaton professor who routinely criticizes Israel, and champions the
allegedly down-trodden Palestinians, has little in common with conservative
readers.

The same for other Zondervan
authors like Rob Bell and Brian McLaren, both of whom seek to re-define
Christianity.

At ICRS, I happened by the
large Zondervan booth and noticed that HarperOne, an imprint of Harper Collins,
was connected to the Zondervan space. HarperOne publishes a wide range of books
on spirituality. They are as comfortable publishing the
Dalai Lama as they are
Billy Graham.

HarperOne has a richly
pluralistic stable of authors, including the mystic
Thomas Merton, John Dominic Crossan, John Shelby Spong, and Omid Safi (Memories of Muhammad). Let me show
you an example of a connection between unorthodox Christians, and the
evangelical world.

Several years ago, Zondervan
published the NIV Men’s Study Bible. In that book, editors had inserted some
remarks of Merton’s, as a “devotional.” Merton, the Catholic-Buddhist who died
in 1968, stated: “Sin is the refusal of spiritual life.”

No, it isn’t.

If sin is the refusal of
spiritual life, then there have been billions of sinless people throughout
history, an idea completely at odds with Christianity.

Another example is the
runaway success of Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven Life. When a book hits those
kinds of numbers (what is it now, 30 million sold?), there is no possibility
that author will never write another book. What actually happens is that
editorial boards sit around and come up with new themes, new gimmicks. That’s
why you see “journals” and “workbooks” that spin-off hot sellers like Your Best
Life Now. It isn’t necessarily because the ancillary product is useful to the
consumer. It is that the product is product, something to be sold. The
publishers latch onto a hot theme and then milk more profits from consumers.

Profit/revenue is the
agenda. Do we worship God or mammon?

This syncretic approach is
diluting biblical truth in America.

These are just a few
examples of where the publishers are. Another element in the pipeline, the
bookstores, is just as sad.

It fascinates me that
Christian book stores are struggling mightily to stay open, yet they almost
contemptuously sideline large markets. For example, a few days ago, I visited
with the head of a large ministry, focused on apologetics. This person told me,
“Our constituency doesn’t want books on marriage relationships, or how to raise
kids — those things that fill the shelves of stores today. Instead, they want
what we are offering.”

This ministry has 150,000
names on its database.

It is interesting to me,
then, that many stores do not cater to these people. The question is, why? Why
would stores marginalize a large affinity group out there? The answer must be
that there is a general dislike of truly conservative biblical views among the
mainstream in the Christian book industry.

For many stores, if a
publisher makes an effort to promote conservative books, and comes up with
initiatives to really help the store promote that product, the reply is more
often than not a polite “drop dead.” Instead, the goal is to put another floor
display of Rick Warren books in the store. And speaking again of Warren, this is
yet another example of where mainstream Christianity is heading:
pluralism.
Warren, who chatted cheerily with the Syrian killer Bashar Assad a few years
ago, and recently spoke at an Islamic conference, is part of the new breed of
Christian leaders who will fellowship with unbelievers.

Several years ago at
convention, I was talking with a salesman for a CBA publisher. He told me that a
few weeks before, he had presented product to buyers at two separate Christian
store chains. One buyer said to him, “What do you think about the Bible?” The
sales rep answered that he thinks the Bible is the very Word of God.

“I think it’s myth,” she
said.

The second buyer he told me
about openly challenged the idea that Adam and Eve were real people.

Needless to say, people are
free to believe what they want to believe. But Christian buyers, one would
think, should reflect traditional Christian views.

These are some of the
reasons that Christian retail stands on the brink of real heartbreak, as stores
close and publishers down-size.

Because CBA has no mechanism
to research the motives of authors and publishers — and not only has no desire
to do so, but is colluding with syncretic elements — it is losing its power,
which peaked in the ‘90s, probably.

As I’ve said before, as
these outlets try to pay the light bill and prepare to shiver in the dark void,
there are alternate book sources ready and eager to supply the still-millions of
American Christians who revere the Word of God. WND, Lighthouse Trails, my
ministry friend…all are growing by leaps-and-bounds as God-fearing Americans
prepare to face profound changes in our culture.