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Thread. Lifeway is closing all of its physical locations, and I’m truly sorry to everyone for whom this means the loss of a job or a publishing partner. But, at the end of the day, this is good news for writers of faith and Christian publishing...
I made a few enemies (and a lot of secret friends!) waaaaay back in 2012 when I took on Lifeway with this post... rachelheldevans.com/blog/christian…
My hope is that this news will reinforce to writers, editors, publishers, and marketers in the industry that we don’t have to conform to Southern Baptist culture and theology to sell books and that fear of getting banned from Lifeway shouldn’t drive editorial decisions.
I hope it sends a message to retailers that banning books for not conforming to strict, fundamentalist standards is an ineffective strategy because readers of faith want books that reflect the diversity of the church and the complexity & nuances of the faith experience.
The average reader has no idea just how large Lifeway loomed over Christian publishing, & just how many voices & ideas it managed to stifle, even outside conservative circles. I hope this unleashes a new era of freedom, creativity & diversity for writers & readers of faith.❤️
Some have read this as gleeful, and that’s truly not my intent. It’s hard to explain the degree to which Lifeway’s policies affected acquisition & editorial decisions resulting in widespread, unofficial discrimination against POC, women in ministry, LGBT folks & allies, & others.
And that’s at every level of the publishing process, (from agenting to editing to marketing), not just stocking Lifeway’s shelves. Getting banned meant I still made it way further than a lot of deserving authors.
