God’s Country Doesn’t Appreciate A Free Bible With Its Newspaper!

It was only a couple of weeks ago that ftm suggested that newspapers should consider delivering other items for sale with its newspaper – its distribution system is really worth a lot of money.

Apparently the International Bible Society-Send the Light ministry figures newspapers are a great distribution vehicle too, and it has struck deals in several cities to have New Testament Bibles delivered free with Sunday newspapers.

But if the experience in Ft. Worth, Texas is any indication of how this will work then it getting through the word of God may not be as easy as first thought. Those who know Texas well know it is really conservatively religious – they call it God’s country – indeed the reason the football stadium used for many years for the neighboring Dallas Cowboys  football games had a small opening in its covered roof was because, the locals would tell you, so God could watch his team.

So Bibles are a serious business in Texas and the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram figured it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to distribute 200,000 Bibles on the last Sunday of the year, and the Bible ministry figured it shouldn’t be too difficult to raise the $438,000 necessary to complete the deed.

Well, everyone has had to think again. Christians are complaining to the newspaper. They don’t like the idea of a Bible being thrown by a newspaper carrier onto the front lawn, and they don’t like the idea that those households that already own Bibles could actually throw the freebie away.

To resolve that, the newspaper has offered its subscribers an opt-out. That in turn has given the newspaper added grief, for readers are saying that if it’s ok to opt out of Bibles then let them opt out of all the other types of inserts that range from free chewing gum, shampoo, to porridge.

As for the fund raising, so far all the ministry has been able to come up with is $13,000. That may mean no one gets a free Bible on the last Sunday of the year!

Bobby Ray Sanders, the newspaper’s vice-president and associate editor, told the AP, “I expected that we’d get some criticism, but I thought it would be coming from people who were not Christian or not religious at all. Many of the complaints we got were from people who were Christian and didn’t like the idea at all.”

As for the Bible ministry, its web site gives a clue to what it thinks, saying the Bible is a sourcebook for knowing right and wrong in a ‘confused society.’ – August 2, 2007

Keywords:marketing promotion,newspaper marketing

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