About the Author
Luther Butler was born of southern parents in Alamosa, Colorado in 1929. He holds degrees from Eastern New Mexico University, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Tarleton State University. He served in the US Navy and has ranched, worked in a mental hospital, in inner city slums, and was with the Texas Department of Agriculture for 23 years. He is married to Jo Butler and has one son. lbutler@embarqmail.com
Other novels by author
http://www.amazon.com/Luther-Butler/e/B000APOK8I

This statement isn’t necessarily true- I’ve seen Page’s book on the shelf of the LifeWay here at SBTS.

I used to work inventory at a Lifeway store in Louisville. Let me assure you, theft occurs at Christian book stores just like at the mall. E-Fencing is huge these days, especially regarding Christian videos and music. Yes, it is unfortunate that Christian bookstore have to have security, but after watching a guy fill up a backpack with CD’s and DVDs, I would say it is necessary.

The ruling was based on a law or ammendment that said marriage is a man-woman contract.

Too bad. Though I believe that homosexuality is a disfunction, and that gay marriage is a moral-relativism shell game… secular government should’t be in the marriage business in the first place.

It would be better if the govt only offered civil unions. The whole fundamentalist objection to that the government is that activists are trying to change the cultural meaning and acceptance of marriage by government fiat. The simple solution is to make our secular government responsible only for civil unions. The rules could be fairly generic, and fundamentalists wouldn’t have to suffer secular judges telling us what’s right and wrong.

But my first reaction to the Washington ruling is: that’s what you get. Leaving morality up to a vote means that you might lose. That’s exactly what happened in this case.

Pro gay marriage folks don’t want a secular government- they want a government sanctioned gay marriage, an official statement that gay marriage is just the same as traditional marriage. Secular gaverbnment is in no place to make that cultural and spiritual statement.

But that doesn’t stop progressives from pressing their case. These days, prevailing opinions and votes tend to favor progressives. But watch how they howl when the pendulum swings!

I did visit one of these Christian bookstores here in Jackson with a coworker at lunch one day. I WAS impressed with the anti-theft system they had in place there. Very high-tech. Got me wondering what kind of clientele actually shopped at the place and whether the market for stolen religious trinkets/books was really that large?

I have been approached in the mall parking lot by folks of dubious integrity trying to sell me gold chains of equally dubious provenance, but I have never been approached by anyone offering a discount on a dashboard Jesus.

The only logical conclusion: their security MUST be working.

Enjoy.

No snarkiness intended at all. Might I be excused if I say that I find most “christian” bookstores (I dislike attaching the adjective “christian” to bookstores, music, buildings, etc - no offense intended), if I find them not to my tastes.

I’d just as soon purchase directly from the source (as in my purchases of Art Gish’s anabaptist treatises or the Mennonite’s stuff), or from a used book store or borrow them from friends and libraries. Failing that, I prefer to buy from local bookstores (ie, not chains).

I feel the same way about buying books from Walmart or Target, no strike against Lifeway, which I know nothing about besides what I’ve read here.

You said, “Well, that and the fact that it’s really probably not a store that would have much of interest to me.”

That’s sounds a bit snarky to me. The LifeWay store at Southern carries quite a bit of historical works, especially by our Baptist forefathers. For someone who claims to be such an Anabaptist I wonder how much of the Anabaptists you really have read (apart from the treatises on peace).

BDW,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I think LifeWay made a reasonable response. I had no idea that a third-party vendor was involved in its online site. It makes sense though, given that this is a regular practice at other online bookstores. I hope you update your post to reflect this.

LifeWaystores.com improving efforts
to filter questionable titles from third-party distributor’s list

LifeWaystores.com is enhancing its efforts to ensure that questionable books are filtered out of a massive list of titles available online through its third-party distributor. In fact, the third-party distributor makes 130,000 titles available to LifeWay, while adding sometimes as many as 1,000 new titles each week. Lifewaystores.com includes only about 100,000 of these titles, having eliminated nearly 25 percent of the books for a variety of reasons, most often because of inappropriate content, according to Mark Scott, vice president of the Christian stores division of LifeWay Christian Resources. In addition, LifeWay filters the titles electronically based on information from publishers and the reputation of authors and publishers for producing biblically-based material. Every week, dozens of inappropriate titles are removed successfully. And, says Scott, the electronic filtering and human-review processes are being improved to meet the high volume of new books hitting the Christian retail market.

“Even so, no system is perfect, and because we’re human and make mistakes, a few inappropriate titles occasionally make it through our filtering system and onto the online list,” says Scott. “When we become aware of these titles – often through an email from a customer – we investigate them, and if we confirm them to be inappropriate, we remove them immediately.”

That’s what happened this week as several Web logs reported that LifeWaystores.com was offering a number of pro-homosexual titles. “We checked it out immediately and found that, in fact, several titles did appear on our third-party distributor’s list,” says Scott. “We were unaware of these and removed the titles immediately. We appreciate it when such titles are brought to our attention and we invite our customers to contact us if they discover titles or authors about which they are concerned. Our customers place a high degree of trust in us to provide biblically sound resources. We value that trust and strive to maintain it.”

LifeWaystores.com also will be providing “Read with Discernment” tags on certain titles that are requested for scholarly study but may not appropriate for a broader Christian audience. ”Many of the titles available through the distributor are made available for critical study or research so that pastors, seminary students and ministry leaders have access to material that helps them understand and develop responses to the diversity of religious thought in a postmodern world,” says Scott.

“there are two LifeWay’s in Louisville. One is on Hurstbourne in the TaylorHurst shopping center (may not be in bike riding distance though)”

EVERYwhere is bike riding distance, if you have the time…

Although, in the case of Hurstbourne, it’s not the distance, it’s the poor road planning that would keep me away.

Well, that and the fact that it’s really probably not a store that would have much of interest to me.

But thanks!