Women Pastors are Pornographic

An action.hack is something concrete you can do to encourage an open Christian system or subvert a closed Christian system.  Read on for the hack!

I will give $1* to every HX.net reader that goes to their local LifeWay Christian Bookstore and asks for the current issue of the Gospel Today magazine.

I bet I know where you will find it.  It will be behind the sales desk, next to the porn. Well, if they sold porn at LifeWay Christian. But it will feel the same way.

Why? Because LifeWay had the magazine pulled from the shelves. You can now only get it by asking a clerk.  Why?

• Want hint number one?  LifeWay is owned by the Southern Baptist Convention.
• Want hint number two?  Here’s the scandalous cover.

That’s right.  Because one of the more popular Christian magazines does a story on women pastors, it is SCANDALOUS and must not be sold in the Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated LifeWay Christian Bookstores.  The spokesperson simply said “It is contrary to what we believe.”  Fine.

However, that doesn’t mean I can’t take my own action about the magazine.  And you can too.  I would encourage you to compensate for this theological error by buying the issue (Sept/Oct 2008).  Tell Gospel Today to not back down in the face of economic pressure.  You can buy the issue from Borders, LifeWay, and Wal-Mart, or many other retailers in your area.

I would personally encourage you to go and buy this issue.  Make it the best-selling issue of Gospel Today ever.  And tell the company that you support women in the pulpit and they should do more stories like it.  And you will be hacking Christianity along with everyone else to open up the system one more centimeter for equality in the pulpit.

So post below in the comments and let us know how the interactions at LifeWay Christian Bookstores go!  I’ll be very interested!

* = if you know me in real life, you know that I actually never pay up.  But buy the issue anyway to stand against spiritual misogyny (or however you define it).