will at willzhead has blogged about the southern baptist and lifeway boycott of leonard sweet's new book out of the question, into the mystery and his server was down, so i couldn't post my comment there, so i decided to blog on it too.
it stuns me to think that there are 'christian book stores' who are making these kind of business decisions. it shows how limited their scope truly is. to be cutting your market in 1/2 by determining which books can and cannot purchased in these times of amazon and wal-mart is absolutely stunning to me. spookyrach over at skewed view has a hysterical story to tell of her last visit to the jesus five and dime.
personally i welcome their boycott - it does wonders for disney's business - maybe it will do the same for sweet's book sales. i know i would have bought it 2nd hand originally, but i'll be purchasing it new, and pushing it up on my reading list because of this.
'build the walls higher' only works for so long - soon that kind of mindset will have very little power over controlling the belief systems of those in the pews, and they are terrified, downright terrified.
i have felt for over a year now that there is a big divide coming. i am not a prophet, but i can feel it in my bones. there will be a time soon where the powers that be in the evangelical church 'reclassifies' itself as 'for' or 'against'. the black and white, easy answers crowd who like everything in a neat little box, and the rest of us.
i see this especially happening in youth ministry. the josh mcdowells of the world cannot tolerate questions. the 'bible answer man' types will bunker down and drawn their lines. i think it's only a matter of time before another restructuring happens. loss of power and control will force their hands.
and i don't think it's going to be pretty, in fact i think it's going to get really ugly. i can see the discomfort in our sr. pastor's eyes when my husband speaks of rob bell or a generous orthodoxy. they are the gatekeepers, and it will be an easy call in their eyes to determine which side of the line is truth and which side is error.
the beauty of the internet is that it wrests this power from their hands. those in the pews, if curious, now have acess to the kingdom in ways that truly never happened before. that 'us' vs. 'them' or the 'we're the only ones with the truth' mentality is shown for what it is to those truly seeking truth. just a fearful grasp for power and control.
i pray i'm wrong, but i fear i'm not. liam and i have had this discussion many times, it is the soul of who we are. introducing the next generation to a life-giving truth that has wings instead of a dead lifeless one in a box. i wrote on this for youthworker journal last summer. questions truly are important, they were important to jesus. he's not afraid of our questions, he welcomes them, living in the questions is the point. having all the answers isn't faith at all.
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