The leftward shift in Christian publishing

One Christian publisher's guide to their own Pride collection.

“Beaming Books” advertises on its website that they “publish high-quality children’s books that help kids thrive in every part of who they are - emotionally, socially, and spiritually.” They also market themselves, along with their sister imprint, as a Christian publisher.

But in a new blog post on their website in honor of Pride Month, we’ve learned that their perception of helping kids “thrive” includes publishing and selling books such as, “Duck, Duck, Tiger” which is marketed to ages 3-8 and tells the story of a girl (Lila) who is “different” kinda like if she’s a tiger when everyone else is a duck (read: she’s learning to accept her impending transition.)

Other titles prominently displayed include, “Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: An LGBTQ+ Guide for Christian Teens,” “Rainbow Boy,” and “Still Stace: My Gay Christian Coming of Age Story.”

Sadly, it’s becoming unsurprising when a Christian organization or publishing company goes woke and embraces the ideology du jour. Just last year one of the largest Christian book publishers, “Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company” went for broke and decided it would become completely apostate and join in the June celebrations of PRIDE. “Beaming Books” isn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last.

Where I get especially bent out of shape is that “Beaming Books” is an imprint of 1517 Media and sits alongside “Sparkhouse” which boldly claims to offer “theologically sound” resources on its website. I’m sure 1517 Media (their name is a nod to the year Martin Luther published the 95 Theses) would also claim to have doctrinally robust (and orthodox) content. They are wrong of course, seeing that they are a branch of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and have been swimming downstream with culture as a denomination for quite some time.

Christians haven’t had an appetite to say the hard stuff out loud for a long time. A “live and let live” approach is much more palatable and it makes the conversation about meaningful life choices much easier.

However, we are finding out (around every corner, it seems) that it is no longer an option for the average church-going believer to have a wishy-washy take on issues such as gender, sexuality, marriage, personhood, life, and reality.

In light of the intense pressure put on our culture to accept all means of divergent sexuality and predilections, we must especially understand how God tells us to order our lives. This is the job of the Christian. It’s become more and more challenging to uphold religious orthodoxy when even religious organizations are selling out to woke standards to “protect” their brand from being labeled, “uncompassionate.”

And in doing so, it is abundantly clear (this is where I say the hard stuff aloud) that in keeping with scripture (Romans 1, Matthew 11:24, Leviticus 18:22, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 1 Timothy 1:8-11) the Christian can not condone or support homosexuality and especially must reject the “Pride” that swims alongside it.

There. I said it. It isn’t fashionable, but it is Biblical.

We contacted Beaming Books for comment on this post, asking how a Christian publisher can reconcile the Bible with these messages. Unsurprisingly, we never heard back.

The problem is that I see plenty of religious friends buy books from the imprints associated with Beaming Books, not knowing they support doctrinally dangerous book publishing. Heck, you don’t have to be a Christian to think that a four-year-old girl shouldn’t have a book telling her she can be a boy if she wants.

We might be tempted to wave away publishing houses like the above-mentioned because they are affiliated with leftie ideology, but we shouldn’t.

Any entity that claims the name of Christian (or any other religion for that matter) should be expected to wear the mantle and adhere to the text that they say they cling to. We should push back on people who pervert the teachings of Christ and push dangerous lies to kids.

We do this because the Bible means something to us.

We do this because the new believer might find these platforms and believe the lies these books spread.

We do this because truth matters.

The 1517 Media company would do well to remember the words of their hero Martin Luther...

“Each one of us must have the kind of body God has created for us. I cannot make myself a woman, nor can you make yourself a man; we do not have that power. But we are exactly as he created us: I a man and you a woman. Moreover, he wills to have his excellent handiwork honored as his divine creation, and not despised ... But each should honor the other's image and body as a divine and good creation that is well-pleasing unto God himself."

(The Estate of Marriage, 1522)

Find Rachel Reeves and RightBooks4Kids on Twitter.