Would you buy a Bible from Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corporation?
You probably already have.
His empire across the English speaking world includes not only the troubled tabs in the phone hacking scandal, as well as Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, but also Zondervan, the world’s largest publisher of Bibles, which he’s owned for 23 years.
Will Braun observes at the Holy Moly Blog:
Zondervan … owns exclusive North American print rights to the popular New International Version of the Bible which it says has sold over 300 million copies worldwide. Zondervan also publishes books by leading Christian authors like Rick Warren (over 30 million copies of his Purpose Driven Life have been sold), Tim LaHaye, Jim Wallis, Eugene Peterson, Brian McLaren and Shane Claiborne.
This bugs Braun who says God doesn’t need News Corp.,
Bald greed has no place in Bible publishing….
Now Braun acknowledges that perhaps this a teeny redeeming gesture for Murdoch who, he notes “was awarded a papal knighthood by Pope John Paul II in 1998.” (It’s an honorary title given to people of “unblemished character,” including non-Catholics, who have worked for the good of society.)
And maybe, Braun writes, the link is too tenous for a world with bigger woes than
… the ethics of Bible publishing … It’s just that I believe there should be absolutely no link at all. Bald greed has no place in Bible publishing…
We do not need to accept this arrangement. Christianity does not need to be about the best and biggest deal, and we can trust that the Good News does not require the help of an unscrupulous empire…
Food for thought…
And having read the above, I went through my modest library and sadly now too have to admit that there are more than a few Zondervan’s including the NIV Archaeological Study Bible and NIV Study Bible. Need I repent?
On a more positive note, I must say that I am now (and have been for a while) focusing on and using primarily Bibles from Ignatius. It makes me feel a lot better…