Everything from detergent to computer discs is packaged with the Sunday newspaper.
So why not Bibles?
A Christian ministry wants to deliver custom-designed New Testaments to newspaper subscribers around the country as part of an effort to find innovative ways to spread a Christian message. But even in the Bible Belt, not everyone thinks that's a good idea.
International Bible Society-Send the Light is planning on spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to distribute Bibles with 11 newspapers during 2007 and 2008. New Testaments would be packaged in pouches on the outside of newspapers, much like soap or other sample products.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram announced in May it would deliver more than 200,000 New Testaments the last Sunday of the year. David House, the newspaper's reader advocate, said he received about 70 e-mails split between backers and those opposed to packaging the scriptures with newspapers.
"Do you have any idea how blatantly offensive this boneheaded move is to the thinking public?" a Fort Worth reader wrote in one of several letters to the editor on the topic.
I can't even imagine how a non-Christian would react to a blatant pander like that.
That it is even considered is just ridiculous.
posted by Paddy @ 10:48 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
ARGH. Somedays I just can't take it.
I'm offended by reading James Dobson every Sunday in my local paper.
if you don't want it, throw it out... there's really no need to make a big deal out of this
or, use it as a scrubbing pad for those dirty pots and pans!
One year we got a bible in with our paper (might have been the mail. It was many years ago), as I remember it.
It felt creepy.
It was a cheesy one to but it freaked me a little bit until I found out that my neighbor got one to. Still creepy though.
if you don't want it, throw it out... there's really no need to make a big deal out of this
I don't disagree, but imagine the hue and cry on the right if copies of the Koran were included in the paper, or one of the recent books on atheism.
I think the wingers would react with boycotts, if not burning people at the stake.
Some Christians aren't happy until the entire world thinks like they do.
Actually, it would have been interesting if the newspaper had made it a part of a continuing series. Think of the possibilities aside from the bible (taken liberally from the wikipedia entry on religious texts):
* Koran
* Zoroastrian Avesta
* Rigveda of Hinduism
* any of the Sutras of buddhism
* The Book of Mormon
* Principia Discordia
And then for fun
* necronomicon
* The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
I find it rather appropriate that religion is being flogged like soap or oatmeal. It's a commodity, after all, and one that relies on need creation and brand loyalty, just like anything else.
You know, a CD-ROM containing holy texts of many religions would be an awesome thing to put in a newspaper. It'd be like "Make Your Own Adventure" only with religion.
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