Money and Christian Books

This next post will, like the last, be rather challenging. There are many facts to consider, and much ground to be covered. I will begin by telling the history of one Christian publishing house and move on to more general facts regarding the Christian publishing industry.

The Zondervan Corporation was founded in 1931 in Grandville, Michigan, by Peter and Bernard Zondervan. Its specialty was the publication of Christian books, including Bibles. In 1932, the brothers opened their first bookstore in Grand Rapids and in the next year began publishing books under the Zondervan imprint. In 1959, the company bought a religious music company, Singspiration, and in 1960, it took over the publication of Halley's Bible Handbook, buying the rights from a private concern. In 1966, the company acquired Harper Row Publishing Company's Bible department, which transferred to Zondervan the publication rights to a number of Bibles and Bible textbooks, including the widely adopted Harper Study Bible.

In 1971, Zondervan invested capital in the financially troubled International Bible Society and its translation of the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible, an investment that paid off handsomely when that publication, completed in 1978, became a best-selling Bible, ranking second only to the King James Version. During the first part of the 1980s, Zondervan acquired other companies, including, in 1980, the John T. Benson Company, a religious music publisher, several book publishers, and Tapley-Rutter Co., a specialty bindery. It also acquired a foreign subsidiary, Marshall Pickering Holdings Ltd., a UK-based printer and publisher of religious books and music. Zondervan became a publicly traded company in 1976, and by 1983 its annual revenues were $93 million.

From 1984 to 1988, the company suffered financial troubles due to accounting irregularities which resulted in lawsuits and SEC sanctions. Therefore, in 1988, Zondervan's directors sold the company to Harper Row for $56.7 million. Later, Harper Row merged with Collins Publishing to form HarperCollins and Zondervan became a division of HarperCollins. In 1989, prior to the merger of Harper Row and Collins, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation bought Collins. Thus HarperCollins, and its Zondervan division, are wholly-owned by Murdoch's News Corporation. HarperCollins, through Zondervan, owns the publishing rights to the New International Version of the Bible. They own the rights to the works of C.S. Lewis. They also publish Rick Warren's Purpose-Driven franchise, and the works of Lee Strobel, Jim Cymbala and Philip Yancey.

In becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of a secular company, Zondervan is by no means alone. Anther “Christian/religious/inspirational” subdivision is Waterbrook, owned by Doubleday/Random House, which is in turn owned by Bertelsmann of Sony BMG. There is also Warner Faith, a division of Time Warner. Thomas Nelson was recently bought by a private equity group called InterMedia Partners VII, which also bought Integrity Publishers. Howard Publishing is now owned by Simon and Schuster.

The publishing arm of Zondervan was more easily assimilated into HarperCollins than was the bookstore arm, however, due to a difference of values between the secular executives at HarperCollins and the Christian executives of Zondervan. Therefore, in 1994, the management of the Zondervan's Family Bookstores chain purchased it from HarperCollins in an amicable buyout. The buyout group was headed by Zondervan's Family Bookstores president and CEO, Leslie Dietzman, with the additional financial backing of a group of private individuals who were not affiliated with any other corporation or company. The bookstore chain became known as Family Christian Bookstores.

From 1994 to the present, Family Christian Stores has acquired several other store chains, and now also owns Joshua's Christian Stores, among other subdivisions. In 1999, the investment firm Madison Dearborn Partners began investing in Family Christian Stores. Madison Dearborn has a wealth of experience in specialty retailing. It now owns over 70 percent of Family Christian. Family Christian Stores is the largest Christian bookstore chain in the United States, followed by Lifeway and Berean. Incidentally, Berean Christian Stores was started as an independent chain in 1934, but was bought by Standex International in the 1960's. Standex is a technology company that makes food service equipment, air distribution products, industrial engraving equipment and hydraulics products, among other things. Standex sold the Berean chain to JMH Capital, a private equity firm, in 2006.

Thus it can be seen that most of the largest “Christian” publishers are largely or wholly owned by secular corporations, as are two of the three largest Christian bookstore chains in the United States. Well, then, what do these people sell? The answer falls into three broad categories: Bibles, nonfiction books that teach/instruct/inspire, and fiction. What is the character of these three offerings?

Zondervan and Thomas Nelson both publish Bible translations produced by the International Bible Society. Thomas Nelson also publishes the New American Standard Bible, produced by the Lockman Foundation. These are typical of translations which arose during the 20th Century because of concerns that the language of the King James Bible had become archaic and therefore hard for modern people to understand. Now, in what I am about to say, I assure you that I am definitely not one of those “King James Only” fanatics. I have no problem at all with other translations, as long as they are literal and accurate.

But the King James Bible is a public domain document, because it was published in 1611 A.D. Thus people have become used to using it freely as a public domain document, including extensive quotes in published works, as well as inclusion in song lyrics. The new translations, however, were not released in the public domain. For each of the newer translations, there are restrictions, such as limitations on the number of verses that can be copied, reproduced, recorded or included in song lyrics, as well as the requirement to include a copyright statement in each reproduction. The NIV has the most restrictive limitations. In fact, if a person opens a Web page containing NIV scriptures, he is not legally allowed to re-post those Scriptures onto another Web page. Uses of the NIV which deviate from their stated restrictions must be approved in writing by Zondervan. These restrictions on the uses of the various translations can all be found on the web pages of Thomas Nelson and Zondervan.

The other book types produced by Christian publishers were covered somewhat in my post, “Money: Wonderland – A Trip to a Christian Bookstore.” I will briefly re-state them here. Nonfiction books are predominantly about breaking free from bad habits/addictions; miracles and prophecy; successful parenting; inspirational talks, biographies or books “based on a true story”; and financial success. Books on doctrine or Bible exposition, aside from prophecy, account for less than a third of the nonfiction sold in these store chains. “Financial success/life coaching” books are popular, including the titles coming from Thomas Nelson's new Nelson Business imprint, books such as The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell, as well as titles by Zig Ziglar, Todd Duncan, Don Soderquist, and Laurie Beth Jones, who wrote Jesus, CEO. There are also financial success books written by a man with an improbable name, the Rev. Dr. Creflo A. Dollar. And last, but not least, there are the conspiracy theory books, which often go together with the prophecy books, and are typically extremely patriotic and radically pro-war, especially regarding the Middle East.

Christian fiction of course existed throughout much of the Christian era. It really took off in its modern lucrative paperback form with the works of Janette Oke and the “translations” of George MacDonald's books by Michael Phillips. Christian fiction is where a lot of the money is at. But in order to understand what is sold as “Christian fiction”, one must understand how the Christian publishing industry defines their target audience. Penelope Stokes, in her book, The Complete Guide to Writing and Selling the Christian Novel, says, “Let's be honest here. Our customers are not, by and large, bright-eyed, eager, deeply spiritual intellectuals who want to be challenged, educated, and stretched. They are ordinary people – usually women and middle-aged – who want a good story with strong values, likable characters, a fast moving plot and a satisfying ending.” This assumption – that the target audience of Christian fiction is rather simple-minded and easily satisfied – explains much of the formulaic, genre writing found in Christian fiction books – and in Christian movies also, by the way. Complex characters don't usually exist in Christian novels, nor is the message in any way complex.

How are these books written? The answer may surprise you, but often the Christian books that are supposedly written by a famous author are actually written mainly by a ghostwriter, whose name is never mentioned on the front cover of the book. This is true of books supposedly written by Gary Smalley, Bill Hybels and Pat Robertson, for instance, according to one source. In the early 1990s, Colorado radio minister Bob Larson, whose name is on a novel trilogy that began with Dead Air, sued a woman who broke confidence by claiming she was the real author. The top-selling Christianity in Crisis by radio host and "Bible Answer Man" Hank Hanegraaff ended in a lawsuit by a ministry staffer who claimed to have done much of the work. I am no stranger to the practice of ministers relying on “ghostwriters.” The “head honcho” of the abusive church I used to attend, which is described in my first few posts, used to deliver Bible prophecy sermons which were basically plagiarized from books written by G.H. Lang, an early 20th century Christian writer. But this head honcho would claim that he got his messages by “being on his knees before God with an open Bible, laboring in the kitchen of Heaven!” He's going to feel heat in that kitchen some day...

The “Every Man” series of books also bears mention, although it is not such a blatant case of ghostwriting. However, on each book of the “Every Man” series, Stephen Arterburn is listed as the main author. Yet if you read the authors' introduction to the first book, “Every Man's Battle,” you will discover that the book was mainly written by another man. When that man approached Doubeday about getting his book published, he was basically told that it needed some “star power” in order to maximize its chances of wide readership. Thus the partnership with Arterburn was created. The “Every Man” series also illustrates another aspect of Christian publishing, namely, the tendency to take a successful book and turn it into a franchise, complete with sequels, study guides, and speaking tours. And the speaking tours are lucrative ventures in their own right. For instance, Beth Moore will be speaking at the Qwest Arena in Boise, Idaho soon. It will be a two night engagement. The Qwest arena seats at least 5,000, and tickets to the Beth Moore event are $55 each. You do the math.

Lastly, there is the political world view of mainstream Christian publishing – socially and fiscally conservative, pro-business, pro-America, and as I have mentioned, radically patriotic and pro-war. I personally agree with some of this. Homosexuality and abortion are un-Biblical, and should be opposed. But Christian publishing also unquestioningly supports many of the positions of the present-day Republican party – positions which may also be un-Biblical, positions which I will examine in detail when we leave the subject of Money and move on to Power. (By the way, these positions are increasingly being adopted by the Democrats also.) For instance, books sold in Christian bookstores do not question the rationale or justification for the invasion of Iraq. They solidly support the Bush administration's denunciations of Iran, and some of them call vehemently for an American military strike against Iran. There are no books about global warming or environmental stewardship sold in Christian bookstores. No mention is made of fair trade, or the damage being done to Third World cultures by Western economic practices. There are no books promoting nonviolence.

Here again I must mention Zondervan and its position as a subsidiary of a media empire owned by Rupert Murdoch. The Wikipedia page describing Murdoch spells out his use of his media resources to achieve political outcomes favorable to him. During the run-up to the Iraq war, all of the newspapers and other news outlets owned by him issued editorials supporting the war effort. In 2006 he supported the Senate reelection of Hillary Clinton, who is now running for president, and who both supported the Iraq invasion and the branding of Iran as a terrorist state. Both Iraq and Iran are supposed to have large amounts of oil reserves, by the way. One can only wonder whether Zondervan is now being used to promote an interpretation of Christianity which is favorable to Mr. Murdoch's interests.

Sources (I have to list sources. Plagiarism is evil and I have to be able to sleep at night without dreaming of eternal fire):

• Wikipedia articles about Thomas Nelson Publishers, Doubleday, Random House, Zondervan, HarperCollins and Rupert Murdoch
• David at http://faithinfiction.blogspot.com/
• "Ghostwriting Haunts Christian Publishing," Larry Witham, Charisma Magazine, July 2002
• "A Christian Publishing Scandal," David Aikman, Charisma Magazine, July 2002
• "Whatever happened to Christian publishing?", Gene Edward Veith, WORLD Magazine, July 1997
• Christian Ghostwriting Services Advertisement at The Scribe's Ink, http://www.thescribesink.net/
• "The Scandal of Evangelical Dishonesty," Randy Alcorn, Eternal Perspective Ministries, http://www.epm.org/
• Post by Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson, on 12 July 2007, www.michaelhyatt.com/fromwhereisit
• Standex International website
• www.berean.com/about
• http://www.answers.com/Family+Christian+Stores?cat=biz-fin
• Thomas Nelson press release, 23 September 2003, “THOMAS NELSON RE-SIGNS MAXWELL TO FOUR-BOOK CONTRACT”

And if I referred to someone's work and forgot to include the reference here, please, someone, let me know. There was a lot of material to digest...