Bible consumerism

[mindstalk]

Long but amazuing article on bible sales in America.

Some quotes:

"the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year"

"forty-seven per cent of Americans read the Bible every week. But other research has found that ninety-one per cent of American households own at least one Bible—the average household owns four—which means that Bible publishers manage to sell twenty-five million copies a year of a book that almost everybody already has."

"Have you ever had a white stain appear underneath the arms of your favorite dark blouse? Don’t freak out. You can quickly give deodorant spots the boot. Just grab a spare toothbrush, dampen with a little water and liquid soap, and gently scrub until the stain fades away. As you wash away the stain, praise God for cleansing us from all the wrong things we have done. (1 John 1:9) "

'“2:52 Boys Bible: The Ultimate Manual” promises “gross and gory Bible stuff.” In the “Rainbow Study Bible,” each verse is color-coded by theme. “The Promise Bible” prints every one of God’s promises in boldface. And “The Personal Promise Bible” is custom-printed with the owner’s name (“The LORD is Daniel’s shepherd”), home town (“Woe to you, Brooklyn! Woe to you, New York!”), and spouse’s name (“Gina’s two breasts are like two fawns”).'

Comments

[fanw.livejournal.com]

Um, the publishers still sell lots of bibles even if they are given away for free by the charities that buy them. It's BIG business if you can get somebody to give it away to their 10,000 TV constituents!

[pompe.livejournal.com]

Churches have a fine tradition of printing and publishing themselves, and not too unsurprisingly my most recent Bible is indeed published by a publishing house owned by two churches (and specializing in x-tian literature, of course) and translated by a joint-church Commission.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Anyway, as noted some people *do* give Bibles away. But there's no reason for that to stop other people from selling them with some profit-enhancing spin, if people will buy, which apparently they do. All Hail Mammon!