Other
Proctor
Articles:
By Paul Proctor
May 9, 2007
NewsWithViews.com
Here we go again!
Bud Press, Director of Christian Research Service, has given me the head's up on a couple more "Christian bookstores" he found on the Internet offering the works of authors most folks would have a difficult time reconciling with biblical Christianity. CRS exists to not only "share the love of Jesus Christ" and "publicly expose the 'unfruitful works of darkness'" but also to "alert and warn fellow Christians about spiritual deception outside and within the body of Christ," which is undoubtedly what he had in mind when he brought the two stores to my attention.
OK - You know the drill:
Pull up the CRS Master List and scroll down to the section titled: HOMOSEXUAL-LESBIAN-TRANSGENDERED-PRO-GAY. Then, one at a time, "cut & paste" the names listed there into the search engine of Lifeline Christian Books and Gifts - located near the bottom left-hand corner of their homepage - and click on "Search."
Here are just some of the titles my search yielded:
"More Than Welcome: Learning to Embrace Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Persons in the Church" - "Gifted by Otherness: Gay and Lesbian Christians in the Church" - "Acts of Faith, Acts of Love: Gay Catholic Autobiographies as Sacred Texts" - "For Another Flock: Daily Advent and Christmas Meditations for Gay and Lesbian Christians" - "I Am This One Walking Beside Me: Meditations of an HIV Positive Gay Man" - "Coming Out to Parents: A Two-Way Survival Guide for Lesbians and Gay Men and Their Parents" - "Face to Face: Gay and Lesbian Clergy on Holiness and Life Together" - "Gay Theology Without Apology" and "Gay and Lesbian Clergy Report from the Front."
Lifeline Christian Books and Gifts is listed as a member of The Association of Logos Bookstores, who greets you with the following "welcome" on their homepage:
The Association of Logos Bookstores is a non-profit, trade association comprised of 24 independent Christian bookstores. The stores are located throughout the U.S., Canada, and the Bahamas.
While all bookstores in the Association carry a core of products that are common to every store, each store has its own personality and vision. Member stores in the Association of Logos Bookstores are unique. Individual store owners, managers, and staff determine the merchandise that will be sold at their store based upon relevance to their customers, community, and region.
Submission to God... Community with others... Independence in business. These are the ideals of the Association of Logos Bookstores.
Another Christian bookstore that is offering some rather surprising items for sale is Cokesbury.
The first paragraph of the "About Cokesbury" page reads this way:
Cokesbury is the retail division of The United Methodist Publishing House. The United Methodist Publishing House, founded in 1789, is a publisher and distributor to The United Methodist Church and the greater Christian community. At Cokesbury, our Mission is to provide quality resources and services that help people know God through Jesus Christ, love God, and choose to serve God and neighbor.
Some of the titles that appeared from my author search of their site included the following:
"Gay and Lesbian Weddings: Planning the Perfect Same-Sex Ceremony" - "A Book of Prayer for Gay and Lesbian Christians" - "Outing Yourself: How to Come Out as Lesbian or Gay to Your Family, Friends, and Coworkers" - "The Rainbow Kingdom: Christianity & the Homosexual Reconciled" -- "God's Other Children; A Spiritual Journey in Gay Life" - "A Woman and a Homosexual Man: The Good Thunder in My Life: A Testimony and Workbook for Women Who Love Homosexual Men" - "The Quotable Queer: Fabulous Wit & Wisdom from the Gays, the Straights and Everbody In-Between" -"Courage to Love: Liturgies for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community" and "Take Back The Word: A Queer Reading of the Bible."
Many of you who read my column regularly and have followed our ongoing efforts this past year to warn Christians about what is being offered by many so-called "Christian Bookstores" are aware of the ignorance, apathy, arrogance, attacks, evasiveness and obstinacy we have encountered along the way. Some of the stores have even closed up shop as a result of the warnings that have gone out from here and elsewhere, while others work to purge their sites - at times, not out of any real conviction or admission of compromise - but just to spare themselves the continuing complaints of customers, which I think is unfortunate.
Lighthouse Trails Research is reporting the latest such closing: AFA's American Family Resource Center. In an article titled "AFA Shuts Down Contemplative-Promoting Bookstore," they had this to say:
Lighthouse Trails placed two phone calls to AFA this week and spoke with two different customer service representatives. We were told that AFA had been receiving a high number of complaints about the store's New Age content and decided to shut it down. One representative told us that many people had called and complained about the number of New Age books in the store. The representative said that people calling thought that AFA was promoting the New Age by carrying these books. A second representative gave us the phone number of Christian supplier, Innovative, and said they were handling orders now for AFA.
Innovative is a major supplier for online Christian bookstores and offers many New Age/contemplative/emerging titles. Christian bookstores like Tampa Christian Supply use Innovative and offer books by some of the staunchest New Age/meditation promoting teachers. A partial list includes: Basil Pennington, Ken Blanchard, Doug Pagitt, Brian McLaren, Thomas Merton, and Joan Borysenko.
But the problem is certainly not limited to Christian bookstores. In fact, The Christian Newswire is reporting some rather serious inconsistencies among well-known Christians in the publishing industry in a press release titled, "Rick Warren, Purpose-Driven Pornography?:"
Chris Rosebrough, who heads the Christian Accountability Network, and authors the blogs ExtremeTheology.com and ALittleLeaven.com, is calling on Pastor Rick Warren, author of the Purpose-Driven Life to discipline media mogul, Rupert Murdoch for owning and expanding a network of pornographic channels in Europe.
Said Rosebrough, "Rupert Murdoch is a born-again Christian and Rick Warren claims to be his pastor. As a Christian, Murdoch is committing an egregious sin by owning, expanding and profiting from pornographic channels and Rick Warren, as his pastor, has a Biblical duty to call Murdoch to repentance and/or put him out of the church."
You see, Rupert Murdock is, by Warren's own admission, the publisher of his book, The Purpose Driven Life - so; it obviously puts Warren in a difficult position as Murdock's pastor. Murdock is probably best known for his company NewsCorp which owns Fox Broadcasting.
But being successful in this world and faithful to God simultaneously is not an easy task. In fact, I'm not sure it is even possible anymore, since our deteriorating culture's idea of "success" and God's idea of "faithful" are, for the most part, at opposite ends of the spectrum. It would be like comparing John the Baptist to Donald Trump.
But then, that's the choice before us, isn't it?
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
Related articles:
1.
'Christian'
bookstore features X-rated flicks
2. X-rated
Christian store's troubles traced to Amazon
3. Gay-Friendly
Authors Populate SBC's LifeWay Site
4. Beware
of Christian Bookstores!
5. Dear
Mr. Wildmon (An Open Letter)
6. Beware
of Christian Bookstore Hypocrisy
7. Should
Christian Bookstores Offer Anything From Bibles To Porn?
8. The
Dirty Little Secret About Many Online Christian Bookstores
� 2007 Paul Proctor - All Rights Reserved
Sign Up For Free E-Mail Alerts
E-Mails
are used strictly for NWVs alerts, not for sale
Paul Proctor, a rural resident of the Volunteer state and seasoned veteran of the country music industry, retired from showbiz in the late 1990's to dedicate himself to addressing important social issues from a distinctly biblical perspective. As a freelance writer and regular columnist for NewsWithViews.com, he extols the wisdom and truths of scripture through commentary and insight on cultural trends and current events. His articles appear regularly on a variety of news and opinion sites across the internet and in print.
E-Mail: watchman@usa.com�
Many
of you who read my column regularly and have followed our ongoing efforts
this past year to warn Christians about what is being offered by many
so-called "Christian Bookstores" are aware of the ignorance, apathy, arrogance,
attacks, evasiveness and obstinacy we have encountered along the way.
