"Breaking News," "XXX-rated porn flowing into Christian bookstores" A "WND Exclusive"

[Minnesota]

Well not really, but that's what WingNut Daily would like you to believe.

As it turns out there is no "XXX-rated porn flowing into Christian bookstores." XXX-rated porn isn't even getting into Christian bookstore. Seems that Heritage Christian Book Store in St. Catharines, ON--the example WND has chosen to use-- uses an on-line supplier, Book Manager, that happens to offer what appears to be pornographic literature to all its customers: retail book sellers. And that Heritage Christian Book Store was unaware of the fact until WND apprised them of the fact.

The WND article

None of this is really newsworthy except that WingNut Daily has sought to rile its readers with a bald face lie about it--See OP Title. Nothing new in that of course--they've done the same kind of thing many times before. It just raises the question: how "Christian" can a "Christian" web site be that purposely lies to its readers? OR, is this part of the new Christian ethic: whatever works is okay? I know that it isn't, but considering all the creationist websites that also lie to their readers, and all many dishonest ministers that have been exposed of late, one begins to wonder if anyone is paying any attention to all the deceit going on in the name of Christianity and if anyone actually cares?

Doesn't this kind of deceit bother anyone here, or is it a matter of "Alls fair in love and the promotion of the religion"? If the promoters of Christianity have been driven to deceive their brethren it certainly speaks of an unhealthy desperation. Could Christianity be in such a sorry state that deceit has become commonplace/? Or are these dishonest websites and their lying owners a manifestation of some other kind of illness? Perhaps they are nothing but fast-buck con artists cashing in on the gullibility of uncritical Christians. In any event, good people, I would think twice about dealing with any of these websites or believe anything they said.



source of OP Title

[decoski]

Well not really, but that's what WingNut Daily would like you to believe.

As it turns out there is no "XXX-rated porn flowing into Christian bookstores." XXX-rated porn isn't even getting into Christian bookstore. Seems that Heritage Christian Book Store in St. Catharines, ON--the example WND has chosen to use-- uses an on-line supplier, Book Manager, that happens to offer what appears to be pornographic literature to all its customers: retail book sellers. And that Heritage Christian Book Store was unaware of the fact until WND apprised them of the fact.

The WND article

None of this is really newsworthy except that WingNut Daily has sought to rile its readers with a bald face lie about it--See OP Title. Nothing new in that of course--they've done the same kind of thing many times before. It just raises the question: how "Christian" can a "Christian" web site be that purposely lies to its readers? OR, is this part of the new Christian ethic: whatever works is okay? I know that it isn't, but considering all the creationist websites that also lie to their readers, and all many dishonest ministers that have been exposed of late, one begins to wonder if anyone is paying any attention to all the deceit going on in the name of Christianity and if anyone actually cares?

Doesn't this kind of deceit bother anyone here, or is it a matter of "Alls fair in love and the promotion of the religion"? If the promoters of Christianity have been driven to deceive their brethren it certainly speaks of an unhealthy desperation. Could Christianity be in such a sorry state that deceit has become commonplace/? Or are these dishonest websites and their lying owners a manifestation of some other kind of illness? Perhaps they are nothing but fast-buck con artists cashing in on the gullibility of uncritical Christians. In any event, good people, I would think twice about dealing with any of these websites or believe anything they said.



source of OP Title

Minnesota's thinking: 1. The top internet news site has a misleading article title 2. That website is written by Christians for Christians 3. Christians read articles on that website 4. Therefore, all Christians are dishonest, hypocritical liars

[Conductor42]

Carley Bortolin manages the database for BookManager, and told WND that there was no glitch in the programming that produced Playboy pictorials on a Christian bookstore website.

"There is no glitch right now. All of our bookstores are aware that this information is shared. It's not just a Christian database. That's why [the porn products] will show," she said.

That definetly is a problem.

[Dee Dee Warren]

Minn once again shows his bigotry:

"Canadian Christians looking for solid, Bible-based materials may be in for a big surprise when they browse the cyber-shelves of online Christian bookstores powered by TBM BookManager, Ltd.," Press said. "Unless they are careful, they will be exposed to much more than just Christian authors and books."

The article is VERY clear that it is speaking of online bookstores. Unless Minn hasn't figured out that Internet "storefronts" are a hugely growing market. I wonder if Amazon doesn't think it is a bookstore - according to Minn, they are deceptive if they do.

Minn, I pity your bigotry that drives you to smear Christians whenever you can.

[Jme]

That definetly is a problem.

Why?

These databases provide services for many types of stores, it doesn't make sense to restrict access to parts of it as this would reduce their potential sales. Part of their profits will come from people randomly browsing their selection.

If the people have access to the internet then there is no end of porn and other materials that some christians find disgusting. It's not like christians are using that sort of thing anyway.

[Dee Dee Warren]

It is not a problem for that distributor JME but it is a problem for the Christian stores. They need to find a way for it to be filtered. The article also said that the distributor was trying to work out a way this could happen.

[Conductor42]

It is not a problem for that distributor JME but it is a problem for the Christian stores. They need to find a way for it to be filtered. The article also said that the distributor was trying to work out a way this could happen.

yeah, that.

[Jme]

It is not a problem for that distributor JME but it is a problem for the Christian stores. They need to find a way for it to be filtered. The article also said that the distributor was trying to work out a way this could happen.

But surely if the christians using the stores are behaving themselves they are not going to find the naughty material anyway (barring random errors in the listings, but then disney had that whole porn mistake so you never can entirely prevent it).

And if the christians using the store are going to look for that sort of thing then they'll likely not use a christian store anyway.

[Dee Dee Warren]

But surely if the christians using the stores are behaving themselves they are not going to find the naughty material anyway (barring random errors in the listings, but then disney had that whole porn mistake so you never can entirely prevent it).

And if the christians using the store are going to look for that sort of thing then they'll likely not use a christian store anyway.

That really misses the point. It is a Christian store. Surely you aren't suggesting that since perhaps the same deliver truck that deliver Christianity Today to Family Christian is the same one that deliver PlayBoy to the Circle K should drop off Playboys there too are you? A Christian store is a ministry and its materials are to be Christian.

Additionally - there are people who have weaknesses, and they go to a Christian store to find some of hte same things they could find in other stores precisely because they wanted to be grounded. Further, those sites might be flagged safe by parents who monitoring their children's browsing and then you have that.

[Jme]

That really misses the point. It is a Christian store. Surely you aren't suggesting that since perhaps the same deliver truck that deliver Christianity Today to Family Christian is the same one that deliver PlayBoy to the Circle K should drop off Playboys there too are you? A Christian store is a ministry and its materials are to be Christian.

But aren't we talking about an online database that you have to search through? The database is not designed to force materials onto people, rather it is designed to return results that match the search criteria.

Additionally - there are people who have weaknesses, and they go to a Christian store to find some of hte same things they could find in other stores precisely because they wanted to be grounded. Further, those sites might be flagged safe by parents who monitoring their children's browsing and then you have that.

Maybe it would be a good idea (given the resistance to it from the porn industry) to have a christian domain thingy, like porn was going to get xxx. maybe christians should use ccc. or some other variant.

I just want to be sure that I understand the issue - it is a problem that the christian store uses a database that also contains materials that are offensive to conservative christian values - and that's it right?

[Darth Executor]

The database is not designed to force materials onto people

Force materials onto people? What the heck? Please stop posting before you turn into Minn.

[Jme]

Force materials onto people? What the heck? Please stop posting before you turn into Minn.

I am genuinely confused actually.

[Dee Dee Warren]

But aren't we talking about an online database that you have to search through? The database is not designed to force materials onto people, rather it is designed to return results that match the search criteria.

You didn't read the article did you? I am asking becuase one of the points of the article was that unacceptable results were coming up from searches that would be routining performed in searching for Christian bookstore items. I think that is inevitable.

I just want to be sure that I understand the issue - it is a problem that the christian store uses a database that also contains materials that are offensive to conservative christian values - and that's it right?

Almost right... It is a problem that the database offers up advertisments and results in screens that are typical Christian searches that contain such materials. Hopefully that clears it up a bit.

Let me give an example, if I don't have my google image filtered to moderate level, when I search for "Xena pics" - an innocent activity on my part, I found out the hard way that you can get some things that are definiting NOT what I was looking for.

[Conductor42]

Jme, if its driving away customers, it ain't helping profits.
This sort of thing will drive away customers.

[Jme]

You didn't read the article did you? I am asking becuase one of the points of the article was that unacceptable results were coming up from searches that would be routining performed in searching for Christian bookstore items. I think that is inevitable.

I did, just not that well apparently (I've just reread it)- thank you for clearing it up.

Sorry about that too.