UPDATE: Christianity Today informed me they stand by the quotes in the article.
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Last night Eric Metaxas briefly addressed his statements in yesterdays Christianity Today’s article on the ethics of buying a spot on the New York Times best-seller list.
To recap, you can read what Metaxas told CT here and below.
Late last night, Metaxas addressed concerns about his statements in the CT by appearing to backpeddled from them.
I don’t think “buying” one’s way onto a bestseller list is ok! I never heard of Resultsource! I only thought Driscoll deserved some grace.
— Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) January 8, 2015
I responded to the tweet by posting his comments to CT and asking if he could clarify.
@wthrockmorton Yes, from what I knew at the time, but it sounds a bit more complicated. I’m not as up on all the details as I cd have been.
— Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) January 8, 2015
From there, we had a brief exchange and he addressed the issue again briefly in other tweets to his “great audience.”
Just wanted to be clear that I think people sometimes enjoy piling on when pastors stumble. So yes, I thought Driscoll deserved some grace.
— Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) January 8, 2015
We can be charitable even as we are criticizing and the issue of the NYTimes list is indeed complicated. It shouldn’t be. But it truly is.
— Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) January 8, 2015
But of course “buying” one’s way onto a list is not something I approve of. Goodnight ladies and gentlemen, you’ve been a great audience.
— Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) January 8, 2015
So that’s it as far as I can tell from his twitter feed. I got a form email to my requests for clarification.
I am not clear on his position. The CT article was about using ResultSource to manipulate the best seller list. CT’s writer Ken Walker said Metaxas thought Mars Hill didn’t do anything wrong; that opinion is more charitable than simply showing Driscoll grace. What CT printed (Mars Hill did nothing wrong) and what Metaxas said last night (buying on the NYT list is wrong) doesn’t match. Metaxas didn’t address the discrepancy in his tweets but did say that the NYT list issue is complicated. I would like to know how faking book sales with church money is complicated.
I hope Metaxas will see the contradiction which remains between his CT comments and his tweets and clear it up.