Ethic's / Pastors / And the Christian Community

I haven't written editorial's before on my BLOG, but there is always a first.  If you haven't been following the recent events at Mars Hill Church in Seattle you may be in for a bit of a surprise. It seems as though Pastor Mark Driscoll's newest book on Marriage was a huge success in it's first week of sales.  It hit the New York Times Top 10 list.  That is quite an accomplishment and one that the Christian community should be proud of, a book on the Biblical aspect of Marriage topping the charts.

But wait, not all was well within the world of Christian Ethics.  It turns out that Mars Hill Church and Pastor Driscoll hired a marketing firm and paid them a large amount of money to purchase 10,000 copies of the book in the first day or two of sales.  This marketing firm guaranteed Mars Hill that the book would hit the top charts because they had learned how to play the numbers game in purchases / days of sale / popularity.

So, the book sold 10,000 copies like hot cakes.  The problem was it wasn't consumer's buying the book.  It was marketers buying up copies to push the book up the charts.

While not illegal in my humble opinion it is highly unethical.  This has brought a real tarnish to the name of God and His Church.  It makes us look bad.  Sure we are suppose to be as wise as a serpent when it comes to the ways of the world, but that doesn't mean that we crush our Ethics in the name of sales / popularity / fame.

Below are three links to articles regarding this issue.

Friends, please review your own set of Ethics and remember that we are being watched by the non-Christian world and they examine all that we do.

Do not forget the words from I Peter 2:11-12, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshy lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation."  (NASB)

http://www.worldmag.com/2014/03/unreal_sales_for_driscoll_s_real_marriage

http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2014/march/did-mark-driscoll-real-marriage-earn-nyt-bestseller-status-.html

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/03/14/mark-driscoll-addresses-mars-hill-church-about-best-seller-issue-church-discord/