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My Final Visit To A Christian Bookstore
by Michael Spencer
You
are about to read history, folks. I am, this Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 25, 2001,
hereby promising to never again, voluntarily and for the purpose of
browsing, enter that business known among evangelicals as a
"Christian Bookstore." (Professionally, I have to occasionally
go in one of these places for reasons that are unavoidable, but that
will be as rare as possible.) In the following paragraphs, you will read
how I came to this crucial juncture, and perhaps you, fellow pilgrim,
can find your way out of the morass before it is too late.
How might I describe my relationship with the Christian booksellers of the world? Let's just say I am a major reason for the success of these businesses. I am a one man economic tidal wave. I have, single-handedly, kept these establishments in the black for most of four decades. The managers and employees all know me by name. I am cheered when I enter the door. And my home shows evidence of this relationship. I have spent more money on books than on my combined college and graduate school education. The kids may go without clothes and shoes, but I will not go without a book. Christian music? I am the equivalent of the library of congress. If Ken Burns ever does a PBS special on the history of contemporary Christian music, I will be the only archive needed. When I move, movers bring a separate van for books and music.
Is this a sickness? Probably. I won't bore you with the psychology of my addictions. Let's be more positive. I love books like Fred Scrooge loves Christmas, and they have done me good. I am immeasurably enriched by what I have read and many others have been blessed as well. Does my wife mind that for years vast tracts of the family finances vanished into the coffers of the Christian bookselling industry? Certainly, but she's forgiven me this vice and helped me see that moderation actually increases appreciation. I stand before you admitting my problem: Hi. My name is Michael and I am addicted to Christian bookstores. (Hi Michael.)
But hope springs eternal and I am here to tell you....I finally just got sick of it. A few weeks ago, I began noticing that my time in these bookstores was no longer the pleasant experience it had always been. No, I found myself angry, nauseated, queasy. I picked up books and carried them around, then looked at them with disgust and returned them to the shelves. I began passing through the music section at high speeds, lest my irregular heart beat recur. When helpful salespeople asked me if I was finding what I was looking for, I fought the urge to cackle and drool like Jack Nicholson in "The Shining." When I encountered fellow customers mesmerized in the "end of the world" section, I barely overcame the impulse to throw them over my shoulder and head for the front door.
Clearly, something was amiss in the universe. Since there was no professional help available in the store, I was left on my own. Mercifully, I regained my sanity. As millions of young Republicans say about their experience with the Democratic party, "I didn't leave the Christian Bookstores, the Christian Bookstores left me." Or something that profound.
In the past, I frequented Christian bookstores because they sold....good Christian books. Books on the Bible, Christian issues, various Christian doctrines, evangelism, apologetics and so on. Christian music, particularly in the 70's, was a creative and risk-taking cultural invasion. Christian musicians like Larry Norman, Terry Taylor and Steve Camp were speaking the Gospel in the language of the counter-culture. Being a fan of contemporary Christian music in the heyday of Degarmo and Key or Petra made you an automatic outsider to mainstream Christianity, but gave you a powerful way to communicate with those in the wider world.
Christian bookstores introduced me to Francis Schaeffer, J.I. Packer, John Stott and lots of other wonderful writers. Yeah, they fed me Hal Lindsey and Mike Warnke, too, but the good stuff always outweighed the bad. Howard Snyder. Phillip Yancey. C.S. Lewis. Brennan Manning. Chuck Swindoll. I discovered Thomas Merton in a little Catholic bookstore that I used to sneak into once a weekend. That's been a life-changing friendship. For me, a visit to a bookstore was a faithbuilder, a foray into a world of thinkers, scholars, writers and preachers that pointed me in the best of directions.
And if this were still the case, I would be happily droning around the aisles as I did for years. Of course, this is not the situation anymore. Evangelical Christianity has evolved into something that I no longer recognize and Christian bookstores are in the forefront of the descent into madness. As a self-identified reformed Christian, I've always known that my relationship with my local Christian retailer was strained, but recent developments have sealed the rift. Whatever is going on in the churches that produce and consume the wares of today's Christian booksellers is wandering a long way from Biblical Christianity.
Today's Christian bookstore is generally devoted to all kinds of junk, relics, trinkets and totems called gifts, but there are still a lot of books. The largest section is usually Christian fiction, the home of hundreds of mediocre and embarrassing forays into bad theology and none-too-subtle preachiness. Next is the personal issues industry, containing Christian excursions into weight loss, finding a mate, raising perfect kids, becoming wealthy and interpreting dreams and voices. Then a generous amount of display space goes to what can only be called "end of the world fever." Is there an answer as to why American Christians gulp down hundreds of bizarre, contradictory, mind-numbingly idiotic tomes speculating on the end-of-the-world? I'm up for the discussion if you are.
And then there are lots- and I mean warehouses full- of books that are just insubstantial. No doctrine, all devotion. No depth. Pablum. Cotton Candy. Bubble gum. Idiocy. Every tv and radio preacher has a shelf. Heretics and wackos are welcome. People who would have been burned at the stake in other generations happily sell their latest concoctions as if they were Aquinas. Acres of devotional guides whose pages might as well be blank. Christian celebrities and recording artists are now authors, as if they had anything to say worth hearing. Chicken Soup for the Soul. How to this and How to that. Harry Potter versus the Bible. Guides to finding demons in everything and everyone. This is a carnival that would send Luther screaming from the room.
Music? Christian music has been bought out by the major record companies, and we now are overwhelmed with an industry that is making billions of dollars selling its product to the evangelical ghetto. There are some creative and brilliant musicians making Christian music, and the stigma of second class sound and performance is certainly gone. But, in general, I have concluded that contemporary Christian music is a wholly owned and manipulated extension of secular record executives and serious Christians should view it with skepticism. Its artists are cooked up and forced onto a compliant and complacent evangelical subculture. It doesn't challenge the culture, it imitates the culture and sells out the Gospel, lyrically and theologically. Contemporary Christian music is Biblically deficient and often outright heretical. It has replaced solid preaching and teaching in most churches and is responsible for the gutting of Biblical worship and the building of temples of secular entertainment in evangelicalism.
Now I do not mean to say the good stuff isn't there anymore. There is a faithful remnant. In the back, because no one is buying it, or low on the shelves, you can still find some decent books. And we can thank God for people like Michael Card, Beth Moore, Kay Arthur and others who have held the fort. Many independent bookstores are manned by faithful owners who keep great stuff on the shelves. (Thanks to Wellspring in L'ville!) There are still a few nickels to be picked up from guys like me, but the big money is obviously in garbage and the big chain stores will market Veggie Tales Study Bibles and Left Behind Thongs with roaring enthusiasm.
I am abandoning Christian bookstores because they have become extensions of the pagan culture in which we live. They market the worst of evangelicalism and pour poison and placebos down the minds of Christians who believe that Christian bookstores are trustworthy. I am swearing them off in protest, but I am swearing them off for the good of my own soul. Thankfully, the internet allows me the opportunity to buy books and music without traveling through this idolatrous wasteland. (Sorry, honey. We can always build more shelves or lease a warehouse.)
One of the most popular items sold in Christian bookstores recently is the "WWJD" catalog. "What would Jesus do?" I think I can safely say Jesus would weep, then turn these temples of error and capitulation upside down. At least I won't be around if it happens.