LifeWay Christian Resources Ending Sale of Pink Bibles After Uproar
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LifeWay Christian Resources has decided to pull pink breast cancer awareness Bibles off the shelves of major retailers.
For every pink Bible purchased, one dollar went to the Susan G. Komen Foundation which donates to Planned Parenthood. Last year alone the Komen Foundation gave over half a million dollars in funding to the abortion provider, according to The Blaze.
The Christian Post was emailed a letter Wednesday written by LifeWay President and CEO Thom S. Rainer regarding the matter. It states: “As this project has developed, we realized it was a mistake.”
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Rainer goes on to say, “When our leadership discovered the overwhelming concern that some of Komen's affiliates were giving funds to Planned Parenthood, we began the arduous process of withdrawing this Bible from the market.”
LifeWay did say that Komen has assured them that the funding is only used for breast cancer screening and awareness. But the Christian resource company said the partnership with Komen “is not in keeping with LifeWay’s core values to have even an indirect relationship with Planned Parenthood.”
The Komen Foundation issued a statement saying they were sorry to hear LifeWay had decided to end the sale of the Bibles. They also said “LifeWay is a first-year partner that pledged $25,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure from sales of the pink-covered 'Here’s Hope Breast Cancer Awareness Bible.' LifeWay and Komen for the Cure entered the partnership with the mutual hope that this Bible would have special meaning for women and their families during breast cancer treatment and recovery."
LifeWay became aware of the concern over the Bible last week after seeing comments on online pro-life advocacy blogs. They also received numerous emails and phone calls from individuals concerned about the pink version of the Holman Christian Standard Bible.
The Bibles were published by B&H Publishing, which is a division of LifeWay Resources. And LifeWay is part of the Southern Baptist Convention. All of these organizations are heavy hitters in the Christian market, which leaves many wondering how such large Christian organizations missed the Komen-Planned Parenthood connection.
When CP asked Martin King, director of Communications for LifeWay Christian Resources, if LifeWay was aware of the Planned Parenthood connection before the Bible was published, he said he was not sure.
The Here’s Hope Breast Cancer Awareness Bibles have been on the shelves of major retailers like Walmart, Kmart and Target since October. They were released during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
King told CP that the Bibles were being sold in bigger retailers and not sold in LifeWay stores because the “the intent of this was to reach people who probably would not frequent our stores.”
The pink Bibles are currently still on the store shelves. King said LifeWay has “not had the opportunity to meet with the retailers.”
King was unable to comment on the number of Bibles that have been sold already, or how much has gone to the Komen foundation. He did say that LifeWay is “obligated by the packaging around the Bible to give a dollar per Bible sale to Komen,” at least while it is still on the shelf.
Once the Bibles are pulled, LifeWay still plans to put them to good use and is working on a plan for how to do that, King noted. He said he is unsure as to whether or not they will be sold again, but if they are they “won’t be sold with Komen packaging and dollar commitment.”
Susan Tyrrell from Lifenews.com writes, “If you want to give hope to a person with breast cancer, buy her a Bible, buy her a book of inspirational stories to go along with it, but don’t buy her the Komen version of the Bible. The text might be the same, but the funding isn’t.”
