"LifeWay Christian Resources" by nakedpastor David Hayward
I first
cartooned and wrote about LifeWay when it pulled its
Gospel Today magazine because its lead story was about female pastors. The stink that raised was so great that if you wanted a copy of the magazine you had to ask the vendor who had them hidden under the counter. Like porn!
Then
Rachel Held Evans' book "A Year of Biblical Womanhood" was believed to
not be carried by LifeWay because she used the word "vagina". LifeWay has since come out saying that they won't disclose the reason, but most are certain it is because of Rachel's use of the word vagina. Which is weird because Driscoll uses the word vagina 5 times in his book on marriage.
Then it recently stopped carrying
Bob Coy's material because of his
moral failings and fall from ministry.
Now it has decided to remove all of
Mark Driscoll's books from its list, stating that it will wait to
"assess the situation regarding his ministry". It's obviously not a concern for the content because it hasn't concerned them before. It's about the life of the author.
LifeWay has removed other titles, not because of its content, but because they consider the lives of the authors inconsistent with historical evangelical theology.
So the burning question is: should books be censored based on the lives of the authors? Do the lives of the authors negate the value of the content of what they write?
I don't think so.