Posted on 11/19/2013 2:44:47 PM PST by SeekAndFind
What do the Bible, "The Hunger Games" and "Fifty Shades of Grey" have in common? All three are works of fiction, according to the booksellers at Costco.
Pastor Caleb Kaltenbach made that shocking discovery last Friday as he was shopping for a present for his wife at a Costco in Simi Valley, Calif.
“All the Bibles were labeled as fiction,” the pastor told me. “It seemed bizarre to me.”
Kaltenbach is the lead pastor at Discovery Church, a non-denominational Christian congregation in southern California.
He thought there must be some sort of mistake so he scoured the shelf for other Bibles. Every copy was plastered with a sticker that read, “$14.99 Fiction.”
The pastor knew something must be amiss so he set off in search of a Costco employee hoping for an answer. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find anyone willing to answer his question (which is not all that surprising if you’ve shopped at Costco).
Since no one in the store was willing to offer assistance, the good shepherd of Discovery Church snapped a photograph of the Bible and tweeted it to his flock.
“People are pretty shocked and upset,” he told me. “We are supposed to be living in an era of tolerance, but what Costco did doesn’t seem too tolerant.”
I doubt they would label the Koran as fiction, Pastor Kaltenbach said. Heaven help us if they did.
“If they don’t believe in the Bible, that’s fine – but at least label it as ‘religion’ as some bookstores do, or ‘inspiration’,” he said.
So does the warehouse store that sells laundry detergent by the gallon have a problem with the Word of God?
I called Costco headquarters in Issaquah, Wash. hoping to get answers. The nice lady who answered the phone told me she was aware of the issue and chalked it up to a “human error at a warehouse.”
“It’s all fixed,” she said.
But actually, it’s not fixed – because there’s a boatload of Bibles in the Simi Valley store still marked as fiction.
At that point, the nice lady on the phone became not-so-nice and promptly informed me that Costco doesn’t talk to the press.
“Nothing to report,” she said curtly.
With all due respect, perhaps they should leave the reporting to the professionals and we’ll leave the bulk purchases of toilet paper to Costco.
Pastor Kaltenbach said he’s not one to speak out on such slights, but seeing the Good Book labeled as fiction was bit too much to take.
“On the one hand Christians should not yell out ‘persecution’,” he said. “We aren’t living in Iraq or Iran. But on the other hand, I believe that we do need to stand up for our faith and we need to be vocal about our concerns.” That’s a message that resonates with pastor and author Robert Jeffress.
“Let’s hope Costco’s explanation is true and not the result of having been caught attempting to marginalize the very foundation of Christian beliefs, the Bible,” Pastor Jeffress told me. “Christians need to call out organizations like Costco whose actions undermine Christianity – regardless of whether those actions are accidental or intentional.”
Steven Smith, of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the fiction label identifies the thinking of the labeler more than the content of the book.
“To label the Bible fiction is a practical front for an ideological foundation that assumes things spiritual are unreal,” he told me. “What is odd about this choice is the glut of books in the "religion and spirituality" sections in mainstream book stores. However, as large as "spirituality" sections are, there must not be any room for Christianity. Modern thinking on spirituality is too exclusive to allow for the Bible.”
Of course, this entire episode could have been cleared up had a Costco employee simply answered Pastor Kaltenbach’s question.
And that’s the Gospel Truth.
….one day, every knee will bow…..
This was posted yesterday and I have t agree with comments then that CostCo does not put label stickers of fiction or non-fiction on their books.
It may or may not be true that these stickers were on books, but the story s meaningless and means nothing with respect to CostCo.
Heading out to our local COSTCO and I’ll have with me stickers I made that say “Fiction” and if I see any Koran’s I’m going to stick them on.
I agree. I can’t believe CostCo has anything to do with the labelling.
RE: This was posted yesterday
Surely not under the same title as this thread? I always do a search for the EXACT title before posting in order to avoid duplicates.
Like I’ve said before, I haven’t been in for a while, but the Costcos I’ve been to have counters or tables for the books, not shelves, and they’re not that big on labeling off the sections.
why?
because they obviously don’t want the business of Christians during this holiday season
So where did they list the quran?
Not for sale in Costco.
The earlier thread used a different site that didn't use exactly the same title:
Costco -- the Bible is fiction
foxnews.com ^ | 11/18/2013 | Todd Starnes
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/11/18/costco-bible-is-fiction/
This thread, in contrast:
"Why Did Costco Label Bible as Fiction?
Townhall ^ | 11/19/2013 | Todd Starnes
For whatever reason, these two sites give different (though similar) titles to the piece. Both versions of the piece itself, at least on skimming, look identical (for example, one version is not markedly shorter than the other).
Any word of Christians rioting and beheading people over this?
Why is this even a issue? Either you know the truth of the Bible or you don’t, someone putting a label on the Bible does not change the truth. Unless of course you need a reason to hack someones head off?
A wise choice. Just dog-earing or mishandling one of those may be hazardous to employees [likely to result in forfeiture of their heads].
I will buy my 50 pounds of rice from Costco and my Bible from a Christian Book Store. Problem solved.
Personally I think a great deal of the Bible has a lot of transcribed oral history from (especially in Genesis) from the period of time BEFORE the end of the last ICE age and the fall of that civilization in it.
That being said, I do not see it as a work of fiction but a book of wisdom and a book of cautionary tales that far too many are eager to dismiss entirely to their own demise.
Remember we have freedom of religion and freedom from religion in this country and they both come from the same document. If you are so thin skinned, threatened, and insecure about your own faith then the problem is not inside costco.
Basically, Scarlett I don't give a damn.
Excellent.
That may mean these fiction stickers are something I’ve heard rumor of: libtards have supposedly a supply somewhere of stickers reading “fiction” that they slap on anything that hurts their sensibilities.
There is MUCH history there, people didn’t pass down that information for kicks.
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