Christian publisher reacts to Pride Month reading list backlash

Renowned Christian publishing house, William B. Eerdmans, has issued a response to a flurry of criticism over its recent release of a reading list in support of Pride Month.
“Wherever you stand or whatever you think you know, #PrideMonth is an important time to step back, listen to real stories and seek understanding,” the editor said in a lengthy Twitter feed linking reading list tuesday.
This weekend, we pulled our post because the overwhelming vitriol was alarming, and we wanted to protect our authors. We stand by our EerdWord message, so we tweeted the link again.
But we think we should also offer some explanation.
— Eerdmans Publishing (@eerdmansbooks) June 7, 2022
Eerdmans, which was founded in 1911, had deleted its initial tweet with the Pride Month Playlist over the weekend after sparking a backlash online.
“Some of the responses to our original tweet could be summed up as, ‘With that tweet you’ve gone over to the dark side. Your business is now useless, and we hope that you will go bankrupt and your employees will be left jobless,” the company explained.
“For those who thought cursing and swearing would be an appropriate Christian response to an invitation to try to understand LGBTQ+ Christians, we offer no response,” the thread continued. “Their self-disclosure speaks for itself, and it pains us.”
For those who thought cursing and swearing would be an appropriate Christian response to an invitation to try to understand LGBTQ+ Christians, we offer no answer.
Their self-revelation speaks for itself and saddens us.
— Eerdmans Publishing (@eerdmansbooks) June 7, 2022
According Church leadersEerdmans also addressed those who challenged the reading list, including its conservative Christian readers, saying that as a publisher they cannot “define church doctrine”.
“Insulters say we have changed our position and started teaching heresy. There are several problems with this accusation. We do not believe it is our job as publishers to define church doctrine” , the company pointed out. “We are neither the pope, nor an ecumenical council, nor even a pastor. Our role is to publish books, representing both established and experimental positions, which serve the church in its ongoing deliberations.”
We do not believe it is our job as publishers to define church doctrine. We are neither the pope, nor an ecumenical council, nor even a pastor.
Our role is to publish books, representing both established and experimental positions, which serve the church in its ongoing deliberations.
— Eerdmans Publishing (@eerdmansbooks) June 7, 2022
Eerdmans also pointed out that the society publishes works from various theological circles, including books written by Protestants, Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians, even if the books contradict each other.
“We are not confused. We are an ecumenical church-serving publisher,” the publisher asserted.
So we regularly publish books that contradict each other on many disputed doctrinal points. We publish conservative and liberal books; we publish Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant books.
We are not confused. We are an ecumenical church-serving publisher.
— Eerdmans Publishing (@eerdmansbooks) June 7, 2022
“When it comes to Christian understanding of LGBTQ+ people, Eerdmans has for several years published books by authors who have come to an affirmative conclusion on biblical and theological grounds. This is not new to us,” Eerdmans said. “At the same time, Eerdmans has continued and will continue to publish books by and for people who have not come to this conclusion.”
At the same time, Eerdmans has continued and will continue to publish books by and for people who have not come to this conclusion.
— Eerdmans Publishing (@eerdmansbooks) June 7, 2022
In conclusion, Eerdmans maintained that the company will not publish books that “deny the existence or ignore the voices of LGBTQ people, propagate false teachings about discredited/harmful ‘therapies’, or generally condemn/insult LGBTQ people”.
“We reject the tendency to promote division and discord by categorizing Christians into two camps, viewing ‘we’ as everything being right and ‘they’ being wrong. We refuse to swear allegiance to the ‘we’ of any faction and join their hostilities against all corresponding ‘themes’,” the statement concluded.
We reject the tendency to foster division and discord by categorizing Christians into two camps, viewing “us” as having everything right and “them” as having the wrong.
We refuse to swear allegiance to one faction’s “us” and join their hostilities against all corresponding “them”.
— Eerdmans Publishing (@eerdmansbooks) June 7, 2022
“As always, our goal is not to tell you what to think. It’s to provide books that we believe will foster informed and charitable thinking.”
As always, our goal is not to tell you what to think. It’s about providing books that we believe will foster informed and charitable thinking.
— Eerdmans Publishing (@eerdmansbooks) June 7, 2022
For a century, Eerdmans published books of well-known Christian voices, including CS Lewis, NT Wright, Karl Barth, Mark Noll and David Bebbington.
Related:
Christian book publisher Eerdmans endorses Pride Month with LGBT reading list
Photo credit: ©Agustin Gunawan/Unsplash
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer. He is also the co-hosts of the Podcast For Your Soul, which seeks to endow the church with biblical truth and sound doctrine. Visit his blog Happy are the forgiven.