On November 2, 2009 I posted an Open Letter to Mardel, a Christian and Educational retail chain headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I expressed my concern regarding their discernment after witnessing their prominent display of several books which feature questionable doctrine. Late that night the blog was visited by a troll who chose the name Jim Bob. Jim Bob, according to my stats, is located in Oklahoma City. My stats also revealed that I’d received quite a few visits from Hobby Lobby, owner of Mardel. See below:
You may view a list of their affiliate companies here. You may read their Statement of Purpose here. You may see their list of ministry projects here.
Seeing as this little blog seems to have Mardel’s ear, I’d like to give all of you an opportunity to share with this retailer your thoughts/concerns/questions about Christian retailers and why you do/don’t frequent them.
For the record, I’m going to speculate that Jim Bob is not officially affiliated with Mardel or any of it’s affiliates. We’ll never know for sure, but I prefer to give Mardel the benefit of the doubt. Mardel has not contacted me regarding the Open Letter.
So, it’s open comment day. Please make the most of this opportunity to share your thoughts with this company. We can hope that they’re listening. And, if you’re so inclined, please link to this post so that others can participate and share their thoughts with Mardel.
Please tell us:
1. Do you frequent Christian retailers?
2. If yes, why.
3. If no, why.
4. Any concerns you may have regarding Christian retailers.
Lastly, for anyone who might be confused, a valid email address is required for comment approval.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Mardel,
Your store is not anywhere near my location. But Christian retailers that share your marketing strategies are near me. I do not frequent those stores because of their choice to fill shelves with pablum instead of meat.
Sure, every now and then a doctrinally solid book is displayed, but the majority of the offerings contain worldly values written in Christianese so that Christians will buy them. Here and now pursuits versus eternal perspective. Feel good me-ology versus Christ focused theology. Market driven popularity versus temple cleansing authority.
It is a shame. Christians retailers should be the distinctive salt and light that God charges His people to be. In the world but not of the world has no real witness when changing a few words in a title would not differentiate the book’s content from that offered in a secular bookstore.
I do and will continue to shop online with bookstores that offer solid, Bible believing, God exalting choices.
Dear Mardel:
I will no longer frequent Christian retail chains. My reasons follow:
1. With any type of retail store, marketing strategies are easily discerned. Step inside the door of any store and the first 10 feet of retail space will tell you much. Your store, along with the other major Christian retail chains, prominently features unsound teachings by questionable leaders/authors.
2. Your choices about what to feature via kiosk displays speaks volumes. It is clear that your primary interest is the bottom line, not the edification or maturation of your customers.
3. It is also apparent that your selection of books is made indiscriminately, with no care given to the integrity of the individual authors. As an example I urge you to check the credentials of Mr. Perry Stone.
4. Lastly, I exhort and admonish you to hear and heed the Apostle Paul who told Timothy, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” – 1 Timothy 4:16
I welcome your response. You may contact me at jules at everydaymommy dot net.
Julie L.
OK, I am setting aside the sarcasm.
In all sincerity and soberness, what are the chances of your site statistics (i.e., Internet Analytics) revealing visits from Hobby Lobby, owner of Mardel? Do earlier analytics reveal similar activity? Do they have you amongst their favorites in their “Christian Blog” files? Is paranoid to think that perhaps someone who had visited your blog felt it their Christian responsibility to report your dissatisfaction (Proverbs 26:17)?
Your situation at Mardel is not unlike most of the main quote/unquote Christian Stores and I thank you for giving me the venue to share my thoughts/concerns/questions about Christian retailers and why I do/don’t frequent them.
1. Do you frequent Christian retailers? No.
2. If yes, why. Not applicable
3. If no, why. See my response in #4
4. Any concerns you may have regarding Christian retailers. Christians, I mean true Christians, have a responsibility to not only hear but to obey the Word of God. Contrary to what the world at large believes, words have meanings; books have purposes, agendas, and intended results. The Bible doctrinally conveys distinct meanings for a purpose and that is not of a man’s purpose-driven life but the righteous and sovereign will of our Holy God. Proverbs 19:21
Contrary to popular belief (considering that the general public may not have read the Bibles they own cover-to-cover) the Bible equips the Christian with inspired Doctrine revealed by our Holy God. It is not concealed, occult (hidden), it is not Gnostic (expressing esoteric knowledge of spiritual things to only those Christians in-the-know), it is not Contemplative, Neo-Evangelical, or Emergent (suggesting that there is no real meaning or understanding of God’s will, or that a passage was written to mean one thing a one person and something totally different to another).
How does this all tie back to Christian Stores? It is simple. We are created in the image of God. We are born again, our minds have been transformed. We have been commanded to take up the full armor of God (loins girded with truth, a breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the helmet of salvation). Our trusted (?) outfitters are selling Christians and the world faulty armor. People are pulling off their shelves error, unrighteousness, another gospel, replacement theology and an impotent gospel.
As a Christian, I would be terrified to work in such an establishment, knowing that one day I must stand before my Lord and Savior to account for my actions. What am I going to say? I am sorry Lord, but “Your Best Life Now,” “The Purpose Driven Life,” and the “Shack” made my business profitable? I remember another who sold out our Lord for thirty pieces of silver.
Blessings!
Ken
We just got a Mardel in town this year. As a homeschooler, I love your $.25 lamination. I can’t find most of my curriculum there, but I use weird stuff out of the norm.
As a mama, I love your $5 VeggieTales. I think your gifts and knick-knacks are really cute. I’ve found some good gifts there.
I haven’t browsed the books. In my experience, Christian lit in general is pretty lacking. Either it’s trying to get the message across so stronghandedly that the plot and characters suffer, or it’s fluff. Obviously, not all Christian writers are “Chronicles of Narnia” material. I find that I’m much better off to read books based off of the recommendations of others–on blogs, in person, and on Amazon. Then I get them from the library–we’re way short on shelf space. I don’t go to a Christan bookstore assuming that I’m going to find things that are going to change or even challenge my faith, unfortunately.
And since I apparently have the Hobby Lobby people on the line, I LOVE Hobby Lobby, as do my girls. I love your frequent sales. I do wish your carts were a little bigger, though. I love that you have the guts to be closed on Sunday. Keep at it!
Dear Mardel:
I also found it notable that of one of the single-most influential figures in the history of the Church and Protestantism was conspicuously absent from your most promoted books, in this his quincentenary.
If not for John Calvin and his fellow Reformers there would be no Christian book stores, for there would be no Bibles for Christians to own, and read and study and apply.
Something to consider,
Jules
CarrieZ,
It takes absolutely NO GUTS to be closed on Sunday. That is not the measure of a good Christian Store. Many establishments in the “world” do the same.
$5 VeggieTales is not the measure of a good Christian Store
Cute gifts and knick-knacks are not the measure of a good Christian Store
$.25 lamination is not the measure of a good Christian Store
“The Chronicles of Narnia” is not Theologically Heavyweight reading material nor the measure of a good Christian Store
If going to a quote / unquote Christian bookstore is not to change or even challenge your faith (what some of us would call us equipping us for living), why go? May I suggest the $$$ Dollar Store $$$. They have cute, knickknacks, and other handy things a much better price.
Blessings!
Ken
Dear Mardel,
There is no Mardel near me, so I will speak only in generalities. I just don’t go in Christian bookstores (other than church campus specific stores, such as The Bookshack at Grace Community Church). I find that the chain Christian bookstores that I have visited in the past 2-3 years have no more real meat in them than my local secular bookseller. Even the Christian music I prefer (and it is contemporary) is hard to find in the chains. As a result, I find my Christian shopping needs are best met online. And even then, I try to stick with the online stores that focus on books that are strong theologically, only going to the broad providers such as CBD when necessary.
With that said, I must tell you that my teenaged daughter and I are extremely excited as we watch a new Hobby Lobby being built 10 minutes from our home!
And if your friends at Family Christian and Lifeway (formerly the Baptist Bookstore, if anyone remembers) care to eavesdrop on our little conversation here, I’m sure no one would mind.
Q: What’s the difference between a “Dollar Store” and the “Christian Store”?
A: The “Dollar Store’s” missions statement can be found it it’s name.
correction* in it’s name.
Ken,
It’s clear that you have strong opinions. Thanks for sharing.
I try to seek my deeper spiritual experiences through worship, church attendance, prayer, homeschooling my children, learning from oh-so-many life experiences, and many other things. Trying to get enlightened while trying to chase two children around a bookstore, while basing all of my judgements off of the back of paperback or the flyleaf of a hardback, just isn’t for me. And as I mentioned, we’re short on shelving, so buying a bunch of books wouldn’t be fiscally or otherwise responsible for me to do.
For me, I get a ton out of reading a lot of really interesting authors online and exploring a lot of books (and reviews). Then I pick ‘em all up at the library. That allows me to do my research before I’m on the spot.
And FWIW, I’ve read The Shack…didn’t like it. I’ve read Purpose-Driven Life….eh. I think Chronicles of Narnia is a knock-your-socks-off allegory that allowed a ton of really good Christian-based conversation with my 6yo, and that’s what matters to me.
And yes, in my opinion, it does take some guts to close on Sundays, particularly when Hobby Lobby was OPEN on Sundays in the past. Making the change was making a statement. I didn’t say that they were running church services in the parking lot.
I wasn’t suggesting that they should be listed in voices of the martyrs either.
Carrie
Carrie,
I am not suggesting what you call “enlightenment” is something to be sought after in a (nor obtained from a) retail outlet. Rather than argue this, I will just tell you what I am suggesting. I am suggesting these establishments represent another “c” word . . . not Christianity but “Consumerism.” I am suggesting that those who stock and run these establishments at best lack spiritual discernment and at worst care more about another “g” word . . . not God, not the Gospel but “Greed.”
Christians are called to a faith that is much different than what is sold in these establishments. An establishment that brokers books, trinkets, videos and music that abominates the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is not a place that I think my Lord and Savior wants me to be (much less young children). Do I have a strong opinion? Perhaps. That should not be the focal point though. What should is, does my opinion have any Scriptural basis?
2 Corinthians 6:16-17 – Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God , and they shall be my people.
“Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you.
Ken,
Of course they’re not doing a perfect job. No one this side of heaven can. They do, however, offer more appropriate options than a secular bookstore does. They tend to emphasize Christ at Christmas and at Easter, which is more than I can say for the rest of the establishments in general.
I could opt to do business ONLY online with those very few selective places, but then how is that supporting getting anything better here? I am the child of a small business owner, and the grandchild of small business owners, and I can understand the need to support small local businesses (even if they’re part of a chain, they’re employing local people who need jobs and benefits) and I support them when and if I can.
I understand what you’re saying–in an ideal world, Christian bookstores would not compromise one iota about any point of faith whatsoever.
However, keep in mind that Christians are sort of varied as well. I know some that are accepting of The Message. I know some that believe that the KJV is the only valid version. Some Christian churches legitimize things that I do not support, but still consider themselves Christian (even if I don’t).
How are the Christian bookstores to reconcile all of these ideas, employ people, and still remain in business? Short of having the Southern Baptist store, and the Catholic store, and the Methodist store….?
If those of us who have more rigid principles just totally boycott the stores, then how are they to know what the problems are? Are they’re getting is silence. What about if we patronize the stores, but are selective about what we purchase? If they have 9000 copies of The Shack, but none of them sell while Calvin is selling like mad, I think it would make a pretty strong point.
I think some really interesting theological discussion could come into play from The Shack, A Purpose-Driven Life, and yes, even The DaVinci Code. Part of our job as Christians is to interpret (and teach our children to interpret) the events, literature, and culture of the world around us through the lens of the Holy Spirit. And keep in mind that you will likely be meeting people who have read such, and it might not be a bad idea to know what conflicts there are. I’m not encouraging you to read such things, but it is a point that should be made. If I read them, I do it through the library so that the authors and booksellers are not gaining one penny from my having done so. And I don’t waste the shelf space.
I’m done with this thread. Goodnight. I’m putting my little ones to bed now and relaxing with my hubby.
Ugh.
1) I do frequently purchase items from Christian retailers.
2)If it’s someplace like Hobby Lobby, it’s simply because it’s a competitively priced art supply store. I’ve never seen books at Hobby Lobby, but I’ve never looked for them there. Lifeway, I’m looking for a bible study or music. Usually I select a bible study by recommendation and not “general” browsing. I like supporting stores that encourage some Christian “ideals”, like closed Sunday or the fact that they are willing to place the words of our Lord in their mission statement or on display for others who might not be saved to see. We never Know, as Christians, what small act might be used by the Holy Spirit to prick someone’s soul.
3)N/A
4)I do not like “cashing in” on Jesus. If you are going to espouse Christian ideals like being closed on Sunday but be ambiguous about what faith that is, (ie. we are closed on Sunday to encourage our employees to spend time with their families and their faith….Uh what faith would that be…is it Christian?) I get exhausted by companies trying to use Christianity to gain a Christian retail client base, but they won’t be absolute about what faith it is that they think is correct. That’s ugly and for gain. They don’t claim Christianity as the absolute truth because some PR company said, “you’ll lose some customers if you are absolute and don’t include the rest of the world”. If you want to be closed on Sundays, fine, close on Sundays. But if you’re not willing to proclaim THE TRUTH, then don’t put it out there that you’re closed for faith purposes. And that sentiment follows with the content carried in the store. As our minister said last night when he was speaking about how to develop your devotional life, you don’t need another book. It’s not that you lack a stategy for bible study. You lack motivation and obedience.
Stop carrying content that is ambiguous at best.
Stop using the intent of the Lord for purposes of gain if your not willing to declare the Gospel as Absolute Truth.
CarrieZ,
Of course you are done with this thread. It is a common response by those who replace God’s Word with human logic and excuses for poor behavior. Instead of godly living according to the book of CarrieZ, let’s go to the bible and see what the Word of God says instead. I do not believe that you need to tolerate error or feed on trash to understand or empathize with the world.
I don’t believe you have to teach your children to become like the world to reach the world. When it comes to right and wrong, good and evil, here is what I read.
Proverbs 4:14-15 – 14 Do not enter the path of the wicked And do not proceed in the way of evil men.
15 Avoid it, do not pass by it; Turn away from it and pass on.
I think a store that sells many false Gospels is pretty wicked. A company that sells a Gospel that does not save in my mind is pretty wicked. A company that perverts the Word of God and his Holy Statutes is pretty wicked in my mind. So, I choose to obey and not enter the path of the wicked, to not proceed in their way. I will obey and not pass by it and I will turn away from it and pass on.
Blessings,
Ken
Ken
Have you ever conscienciously made an error in judgment for personal gain?
Supporting secular stores that openly support whatever, whenever, is better? Supporting “Anything goes” is better?
What Carrie is trying to say is that supporting or not supporting a store that presents itself as Christian is NOT a saving act. Just like sending our children to public school is not bad or choosing to send them to Christian schools is not in and of itself a saving ordinance. ONLY JESUS through the HOLY SPIRIT saves.
People have come to Christ by reading and being exposed to horrendous things in their lives. And people have come to Christ coming from a deeply changed Christian household. As Christians and parents we have a responsiblity not to become ignorant of this world, lest we become ineffective tools for Him to use. We are instructed to not become OF the world. We are told to use discernment.
Shopping at secular stores or “christian” stores doesn’t save.
I repeat…I DO NOT LIKE the idea of stores taking on some of the ideals of Christianity without supporting the full mantle of Christ. Letting people assume what they would like by saying things like, we are closed on Sundays to let our employees practice their faith without directly linking Christ to their motivation lets people assume that all faiths are acceptable to God, our Father. Having content that’s misleading only helps futher along that assumption. I do think some of it is disgusting. But I think television is disgusting these days. I think politics is disgusting these days. Are we supposed to withdraw from all of it?
We must always ask ourselves as Christians, Are we fishers of men or keepers of our own personal aquarium?
I just keep telling myself, it has to get bad for King Jesus to come back.
This is not meant to be snarky… but I would like to comment that the most judgemental, hurtful and heart-wrenching things have been said to me IN A CHURCH by people who are highly-respected and regarded in that church and by some who are employed by the church. I’ve been called a heathen and the bane of society because I work full-time and my youngest child goes to day care and my others go to public school. I have been blasted and ganged-up on on my blog by homeschooling mothers who think I work so I can have money to buy clothes and other “vain” things. (And by the way I think homeschooling is wonderful – my husband’s sister homeschools). So, I’m not sure if the retailers I frequent are Christian. I don’t knowingly frequent retailers that are immoral in my eyes. But to my point…, how do we really know that “a Christian retailer” is truly such. We don’t know what they do when they lock their doors and go home at night. Maybe they go to church and pass judgement on working moms (or ____ men or _____ kids) (And I do frequent Hobby Lobby). Thanks, Jules.