I have tried to ignore the state of the Brotherhood lately but a recent trip to ChristianChurchToday.com got me think about it again.
Depressing.
The 9/13/2009 issue of the Christian Standard which was all about research got me thinking. Now I am not opposed to research and making use of what the social sciences can teach us. I just want to be Bible driven not research driven.
Then, I got thinking about Standard Publishing. I went to see what they say about themselves and what the Christian Standard says about itself. I don’t subscribe to it or go to a church that gives it out free so I couldn’t look at an issue.
I could find nothing about the Restoration Movement or even the Stone-Campbell Movement in the pages that described Standard Publishing. There is a list of Core Values that reads like a generic evangelical creed.
What you do find is a lot of talk about the the corporation and it products and marketing plan.
I couldn’t find anything on the Christian Standard’s website.
This got me thinking. They used to exist to promote NT Christianity. Now they exist to make a profit. Nothing wrong with making a profit. I am a capitalist.
However, I have a problem with the driving force in the Brotherhood being a profit driven corporation.
It is time for a separation between Brotherhood and profit. Can a entity really promote the Restoration Movement and profit at the same time? I think not. Profit will drive it to become more generic in order to increase the customer base.
Check out Standard Publishing president’s blog and tell me that profit is not king. You can’t serve God and Mammon.
