My new book Stockholm Syndrome Christianity is apparently too hot to handle for the folks at Christianity Today (CT). Last week, Discovery Institute tried to place ads for the book in two of CT’s online newsletters. The ad rep gladly accepted the order, and CT itself would have written the ad copy. We were duly informed by the rep that we needed to send a link to the book so the publisher could approve it, but the rep didn’t think that would pose any problem. He was wrong. The next day we were informed that CT nixed the ad placements. They claimed they wanted to avoid running ads in their newsletters “that may be politically or theologically divisive without doing a more thorough review.” We weren’t offered such a review.
Of course, CT has the right to refuse ads for any product it wishes. But after their rejection of my book, I discovered something revealing: Last year CT ran multiple ads in one of the newsletters for something called “The After Party.” As @megbasham and @Natasha_Crain have documented here and here, “The After Party” is a highly controversial curriculum for churches developed by prominent “Never Trumpers” and bankrolled by left-wing progressive foundations. Talk about divisive! But that’s not all. Another book advertised by CT in its newsletters argues for universalism, the idea that everyone is eventually saved by God—not exactly standard evangelical theology. You might think that book could be deemed “theologically divisive” by many Christians as well.
CT’s “divisiveness” double standard highlights a big reason the evangelical establishment keeps moving towards secular materialism: Leading evangelicals (and their institutions) try to make sure there is no real debate on topics that might expose them to hard questions. That became apparent last year in the campaign to spike Megan Basham’s book Shepherds for Sale before and after it was published.
Sadly, efforts to quell open debate aren’t just carried out by “woke” evangelicals. A large conservative Christian publisher was initially quite interested in my book. But I had to submit a list of every pastor or Christian leader who would be mentioned. When they discovered I would be criticizing megachurch pastor Andy Stanley (among others), consideration of my book was dropped. Apparently an executive higher up didn’t want criticism of Stanley. As I document in my book, Stanley is increasingly heterodox in his views on a variety of issues. Yet he is being protected from criticism by a conservative Christian media company. Go figure.
The good news is that my book was still published, and you are now free to read it—even if some in the evangelical establishment don’t want you to.