Sep 20 2008
Christian Magazine Banned by Christian Bookstore Chain
[AJC]
Smiling women on the cover of a slick magazine. Sold from under the counter. Must request it from store clerk. That’s not something a buyer would typically find in a Christian bookstore. Not unless it’s one of the more than 100 Lifeway Christian Bookstores across the United States, including about six in metro Atlanta.
Gospel Today, the Fayetteville-published magazine, was pulled off the racks by the bookstores’ owner, the Southern Baptist Convention. The problem? The five smiling women on the cover are women of the cloth — church pastors. Southern Baptist polity says that’s a role reserved for men.
Read more here.
[From me]
Getting the magazine from under the counter? Sounds like an adult magazine.
I agree with the Biblical view about the office of Pastor (that is another issue all together) but why pull the magazine? So when are the books and magazines by all of the divorced, overweight, lusting, lying, cheating, etc… authors going to be pulled next? When are the going to pull Philips, Craig and Dean CD’s because they don’t believe in the Trinity? What about TD Jakes? Benny Hinn? My book? (well no one has that one) What about the books that teach the Charismatic gifts? If they wanted to they could get rid of every item–why chose this one?
What do you think?
[HT]Mark Mansheim
10 responses so far
You make a good point Kevin. While I don’t agree with women pastors either (like you said a whole ‘nother subject) there is some inconsistency here. They will have to hide Clay Crosse’s book or Samson and the Pirate Monks because they both had porn addictions. Better take all of the Emergent books off the shelves. While I believe they have the right to do what they want, I do question why they would do this in particular.
Bill(cycleguy)’s last blog post..More Prayers for the Weekend
I used to work for Family Christian which was not affiliated with a denomination and we would sell just about anything that purported to be a Christian product. But I don’t think Lifeway has a very large Charismatic section. I’m not very familiar with this magazine, but I’m surprised they carry it at all. As a business, they don’t have an obligation to carry anything, they just have to do business in a way that pleases their customers. I would imagine this particular issue would cause a lot of controversy in the average store that the employees would have to work through and they probably don’t have the skills to handle that. Of course, now they’ll have a little controversy of a different kind. At least it’s not the Gospel Today swimsuit issue
Bill,
I’m praying you have a great weekend.
Cole,
That last thought is scary!
Kevin Bussey’s last blog post..Christian Magazine Banned by Christian Bookstore Chain
I don’t see this as QUITE the same as pulling a book written by a guy who had a porn addiction. I don’t think Clay Crosse is saying “Hey, y’all, porn addictions are okay in the eyes of God”. Gospel Today is at least implying that female pastors are acceptable.
“We” often proclaim a certain amount of ecumenicalism, but there is always, somewhere, a spot where we draw the line. Is this the best spot? I don’t know. I can identify with it, simply because publicly selling the mag could result in accusations of promoting female pastors.
That said, get Joyce Meyer off the freaking shelves
Osteen, as well. I couldn’t find Mark Driscoll there, but they have plenty of TD and Joel. That upset me more than this does.
Bernard Shuford’s last blog post..Out There
Dumb.
The end.
Michael’s last blog post..2 John
There are three things going on here.
First, it shows tremendous insecurity about their views on the part of the stores. Evidently they don’t believe their take on women preachers will hold water in the eyes of people browsing through the store. As a result, the store is taking on the role of thought police. It also looks like the other 11 issues of the magazine will be fine to sell from the rack this year.
Second, it is totally about women. It seems that women preachers are the scariest thing the bookstore people can imagine and shouldn’t be discussed or given any thought at all. I don’t see how this move doesn’t reveal some kind of hostility towards women.
Third, it suggests the bookstore folks don’t get it. Aren’t there bigger issues confronting Christian people. The bookstore folks have taken the one action guaranteed to both dramatically increase the circulation of this magazine and get people talking about women preachers. The only thing this action shows is that the bookstore folks aren’t very smart.
As a person who was saved at a revival led by a female pastor (and a Southern Baptist for 25 years now), the views of women in the pulpit have always been a struggle for me. I see it in the Word, but have seen so many opinions and commentaries go different ways on it- all by respected scholars. I’ve also been advised that women pastors are necessary because so many men will not fill the roles (though I doubt in some respects they can- if any of us fully understand our wives, please fill me in
)
The issue aside, I think the ‘under the counter’ approach sends a bad message- what does it mean? If the issue is wrong are they saying we can do it ‘behind the scenes’ (like our other ’sins’)? Are they saying they won’t totally stop the subscription they disagree with beacuse the sales $ they get from it is too important?
Very strange indeed- seems we have better issues to worry about.
So ridiculous, but not the least bit surprising. You wouldn’t believe the stuff Lifeway gets complaints about - the best thing my daddy ever got was a letter from a fundamentalist preacher in south Alabama (sorry, Kevin, but it was Auburn territory if I remember correctly!) who was mad that they’d published a recipe that involved both meat and dairy because it was in violation of the Levitical dietary laws.
Crazy people aside, Lifeway does a lot of internal censoring to avoid controversies with the SBC executive board and leadership; I’m sure this is just one more example of that.
Texas in Africa’s last blog post..huh?
Dang it now I want to get the magazine! I wonder if more people will want a copy now that it is being hidden as something terrible.
“We support a woman commander in chief but not someone to explain about faith.” –that has the to be weirdest thing coming from the convention right now
I love that thought of being fair to other materials supporting leaders who shouldnt be leaders. Rick Warren’s stuff would have to go cause he is overweight. Precious Moments could enourage idol worship…they do have their own chapel.
I didnt see where to see the different comments on facebook about this.
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