"First Left Behind, Then Jabez, Now The Book of Hope"
"The Washington Post keeps up its tiresome exposé on charitable choice dealings, and a misspelled headline becomes a sign of the End Times."
Ted Olsen
July 1, 2001
Bigger, faster than Jabez
The Book of Hope
, a 64-page evangelistic tool and promotion for the New Living Translation Bible The Book, was one of Amazon.com's biggest sellers early this month, hitting the #11 spot. Nationwide revival? Massive evangelistic outreach? CBA fever? Nope. Free shipping. "In what could easily turn into a Harvard Business School case study, The Book of Hope was the inadvertent beneficiary of an Amazon.com sales promotion—an offer of free shipping to any customer who bought two or more items (books, CDs, videos and DVDs) in any combination from the Internet store," explains the Chicago Tribune. In other words, buying the new Star Wars DVD would cost you $22.95 plus $2.49 in shipping charges, but throwing the 49-centBook of Hope into your shopping basket saved you two bucks. Once word got out, the book started selling like hotcakes. The Tribune notes that it had already been selling well—nearly 9.3 million copies since November 1998—and that there were cheaper books that readers could have picked up instead. Hmmm. Maybe there is something spiritual at work here.
The ultimate religion-and-politics story
Everyone is getting into Florida politics these days: former U.S. attorney general Janet Reno has apparently jumped into a crowded race for governor, for example. But the really big name may be in the state attorney general race, if a headline in today's Orlando Sentinel is correct. It isn't, but it's fun: "Christ raises money for attorney general race." That's actually supposed to be Crist, as in state education commissioner Charlie Crist.
Faith-based initiative rolls on—and so does controversy
A key part of Bush's faith-based initiative—a bill allowing those who don't itemize their taxes to deduct charitable ...
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