Sunday, August 8, 2010

THE BIBLE OR THE CRYSTAL BALL?

“There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.” (Deuteronomy 18:10-13)

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17)

This evening (August 8, 2010) as I was leafing through the “Arts & Entertainment” section of the (Framingham, MA) MetroWest Daily News, my my heart sank as my eye fell upon a small advertisement in the lower right area of page C4. I guess the news the ad brought should not have been a total shock; well not anymore of a shock than learning several months ago that General Motors was discontinuing the Saturn or several weeks ago that 97-year-old Art Linkletter had died. These were both anticipated events, but when the hammer finally drops, it’s still abrupt and still sad. The ad proclaimed the going out of business sale of Milford’s “Bibles Books & Things” Christian bookstore. BB&T has been in business for twenty-one years. It’s located in the Quarry Square Shopping Plaza at 196 East Main Street (Route 16). I must have stopped into BB&T to pick up a few items at least nine times each year for the past several years.

The store’s closing is not unanticipated for a number of reasons. Christian bookstores have been closing left and right for the past twenty years. I would guess the number of Christian bookstores in the U.S. is probably down by at least 60% since 1990. They just can’t compete with the on-line and catalog Christian discount book and gift companies. As much as I love to go in and browse in a Christian bookstore, and I really DO, I will admit that 75% of the Christian books, cards, gifts, DVDs, and so forth that I have purchased over the past decade for either the church I pastored or for me and my family were purchased from one of those catalog companies and not from BB&T. I did not want to see BB&T go out of business, however, and so there were my roughly nine or ten trips there a year, usually to pick up a few items for me, and once in awhile to buy Bible study booklets, cards, or tracts for the church.

You couldn’t have asked for a nicer person that “Dot” the owner of the store. Running the store was a second career for her. It was obvious she wasn’t really making any money PERSONALLY from the store...it was pretty much a ministry, and she was just trying to break even and keep the store going. I’m sure she felt it was a ministry to the MetroWest community and a witness for Christ, and it WAS. But you can’t go on like that forever. And, what do you do? Do you set things up so that you’ll make a nice income but NOBODY can afford the items in your store, or do you wear yourself out and work yourself to the bone in what must at times have seemed like a thankless job. She never complained... at least not that I was aware of. I always got a warm greeting along with everyone else. The store was a nice oasis...a calm, pleasant, and Godly retreat in the midst of a busy week and a busy shopping center.

The ad proclaims that “All Bibles, Books, & Music” are “40%-70% off” and “All of our Gift Items” are “50%-80% off”. I really don’t know when the final day of the store will be...I guess it will depend on how fast the stuff goes. Even so, I hope the born-again Christians of the MetroWest area will make it a point during this month of August to stop in to Bibles Books & Things, say hello to Dot and her staff, buy something, and let them know how much we appreciated the store.

The news of Bibles Books & Things closing, albeit buried in a small ad inside the paper was even harder to take when compared to Sunday’s MetroWest Daily News lead front page story, “For Psychic Shops...Business is Intuitive”. The story reports fortunetelling and other psychic shops are springing up around MetroWest with great success. Ironically, one of the featured psychic shops is located in MILFORD! It’s “The Robin’s Nest”. Owner Robbi Packard says, “We believe we’re guided by spirit, and that spirit was very insistent it was time to create a place where people could gather.” (Note: I’ll just bet that spirit DID insist upon the psychic shop being opened, and I guarantee it was not the Holy Spirit and not of God!) Described as a practicing pagan, Packard opened her shop at 157 East Main Street (note the address: just a hop, skip, and a jump from Bibles, Books & Things) about a year ago. The article notes that during the recession, business at fortune telling shops and other psychic stores is booming.

Listen, I am not advocating that America become a theocracy, nor that it become a religiously repressive country, a Christian fundamentalist republic, or anything of the kind. We have a free country and a free society. If people want to practice
sorcery, “magic”, witchcraft, the occult, etc. they are free to do so. If people want to have a psychic shop, or a Christian bookstore, so be it. I just find it sad that once again we have an example of one group of “spiritual” people working and sticking together to make their ideas and businesses flourish, and the born-again Christians (including me) worrying about their pocketbooks, convenience, etc. and willing by their apathy and complacency to see a Christian bookstore go down the drain. This is one time I wish I was fabulously “loaded” because I’d buy BB&T even if I had to run it at a loss for a couple of years. But that’s a crazy dream for me because my family and I are just trying to get by from week to week right now, and I can barely think about affording a new Bible, let alone a Christian bookstore!

It just seems like a shame to have psychic stores expanding and Christian bookstores closing their doors. I just had to express that tonight.

2 comments:

jon TK said...

I don't think it's even JUST the catolog/internet growth that's hurting these places. There's a growing sense in the secular world that the Christian community is a market they can tap. While it's always a small section, more and more big chain stores are carrying Christian merchandise.

It used to be that to get certain things, you HAD to go to a Christian store because no one else would carry it. As that's no longer true, the business for the Christian retailers dwindles.

It also seems to me, and this is more of a general thing, if we want brick and mortar stores to stay in business we shouldn't be offering things only over the internet. Time and again, I find that many things can only be bought online. I get that there's only so much space to stock things in a live location. But maybe if there were more in-store exclusives than the other way around, such places might do better business.

Sara said...

I worked at the bookstore with Dot for 2 months several years ago, and will attest that it truly was a ministry and a labor of love for her. At a time in her life when the expectation of most people would be to retire and relax, she asked God for some good work to do, and as a result we all have benefited from a wonderful local Christian bookstore. I am sorry I did not patronize it more. God bless Dot and thank God for her!