I need to buy a Bible.  I gave my last one away.  I’ve tried just using the copies on my phone (BTW, the ESV iphone app is beautiful & the guys at lifechurch.tv have written something awesome as well), but it’s just not the same. I love the paper. I love the low tech feel.  I know which Bible I want to purchase, the issue now is where to buy it.

There are lots of options of places to purchase, but there is definitely a couple of places I will not purchase from…..all of these places are christian bookstores.

Now, before I get lynched by those with a soft spot for the local christian bookstore, let me explain.

The other night I was walking through Walmart and I passed the book aisle.  Do you know what they sell at Walmart? Yeah, that’s right, they sell Bibles.  Do you know why they sell Bibles? It’s because they sell.  Do you think Walmart would carry anything in their stores if they didn’t think someone would buy it? Absolutely not!

Walmart is known for hyper competition when it comes to space.  When you deal with Walmart, your product had better move, or they’ll give the space to someone else.  It’s not personal, it’s business.  In fact, it’s simple economics.  They will supply what is demanded.  They’re about maximizing profits, not feeding your soul.

So, imagine if every christian only bought Bibles from christian bookstores.   With the decreased demand at Walmart, Borders, Barnes & Noble, or some other bookseller, the christian bookstore would be the only place you’d be able to buy it.

This would be a problem.

Notice that I saw the Bibles for sale at Walmart while I was shopping for other things.  There are other reasons that I go to Walmart, or Borders, etc.  The path of resistance to me checking out a Bible or other work of christian literature is less because I am already there.  Now, it doesn’t mean I will purchase, but it does mean the probability is more likely than if I had to go to a specific store to purchase it.  This is especially true for someone who is not a christian.

I want someone wrestling with the greater questions of life to walk through Barnes & Noble and find the Bible next to the Tao Te Ching. I want the college student wrestling with ideas of spirituality and world perspective to find Ravi Zacharias next to Christopher Hitchens.  I want someone reading Shaw to be able to find Chesterton.  I want someone reading Ekhart Tolle to be able to find Donald Miller, Rob Bell, Shane Claiborne, John Perkins, Jonathon Edwards (not the southern political womanizer), Heschel, C.S. Lewis, N.T. Wright, Sproul, Piper, Niebuhr, & Chan.  I want someone reading the Secret to be able to find Osteen…..oh wait, I don’t want anyone to read Osteen.  Nevermind.

If titles aren’t purchased, their space is given away or left vacant.  Imagine walking into the spirituality section at Barnes & Noble and not being able to find one title that unpacked orthodox Christianity.  You do realize that someday these authors aforementioned may not be side by side, and the reason won’t be some new age conspiracy.  The reason will be simple economics.

So, this is why I won’t be purchasing my next Bible or work of christian literature at the local christian bookstore.  It’s nothing personal against christian bookstores.  It’s just simple economics.

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