HarperCollins Publishers today announced it was buying Christian/inspirational publisher Thomas Nelson "for an undisclosed sum." It's a huge move since the company will now reportedly control about half of the Christian publishing market.

The question now is how the acquisition will play with Zondervan, Thomas Nelson's chief competition. HarperCollins, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, acquired Zondervan in 1988. (It also owns religion and spirituality imprint HarperOne.) Thomas Nelson says it is reportedly the largest Christian publisher in the world and the seventh largest trade-book publisher in the United States. Zondervan says it is the world's leading Bible publisher.

In 2009, then-Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt reported that his publisher and Zondervan control half of the Christian publishing market--a percentage that had held relatively steady over the previous few years.

It's been a long road for Thomas Nelson, which was founded in Edinburgh in 1798 and gained religious prominence in the U.S. through the publication of the American Standard Version and Revised Standard Version of the Bible. In 1960, it merged with The Thomson Organization (which later merged with Reuters), but was bought out by eager Lebanese-American Bible publisher Sam Moore in 1969. Moore ran the company until Hyatt succeeded him in 2004.

By then Thomas Nelson had gotten into and out of the music business, swallowing Christian publishing powerhouse Word, Inc. in the early 1990s. In 2006, the company, which had been publicly traded since Moore's Royal Publishers was first listed on the exchange in 1961, was bought for $473 million and began operating as a private company. Private equity firm Kohlberg and Company acquired a majority ownership last year, and put former HarperCollins Worldwide CEO Jane Friedman on its board.

Posted by Ted Olsen at October 31, 2011 2:38PM | Comments (22)

Crystal Cathedral officials have endorsed an offer from a nearby California university to purchase the glass-walled megachurch and end its bankruptcy crisis.

Despite their decision, church leaders say they are still hoping for a miracle that will prevent the sale, which could move forward in mid-November.

"Nothing is final until November 14!" said Sheila Schuller Coleman, senior pastor of Crystal Cathedral, in a Wednesday (Oct. 26) statement.

"We continue to pray ... even though our board has had to reluctantly vote to accept a plan due to the deadlines required by the court."

Chapman University said the sale could be advantageous for both organizations.

"We are hopeful that the final decision will favor Chapman, because that outcome would provide the Crystal Cathedral Ministry with the opportunity to go forward using their highly distinctive campus, while providing Chapman with vital space to expand our health sciences programs," the school said.

In July, the university offered Crystal Cathedral $46 million for the 35-acre campus with a leaseback program that would allow it to continue worship services. In its statement endorsing the university's offer, the cathedral noted that it also provides the opportunity for the ministry to repurchase the buildings.

Cathedral officials had hoped to raise more than $50 million through a "miracle faith" campaign that started in July, the Los Angeles Times reported, but had raised only $172,775 by September.

If accepted, the deal with Chapman would seem to end hopes of Catholic officials to buy the iconic church to serve as a cathedral for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at October 28, 2011 4:28PM | Comments (6)

Arthur Holmes, author of All Truth is Gods Truth who promoted the idea of integrating faith and learning, died October 8.

The Wheaton College philosophy professor authored several books related to faith and learning, including The Idea of a Christian College and Building the Christian Academy. He was born in 1924 and taught at Wheaton for more than 40 years, according to a blog post by David Osielski.

Throughout his writings and career, Holmes emphasized that, indeed, “all truth is God’s truth.” His desire was for Christians to not shy away from the difficult questions that may arise from whatever subject of academic study they choose. With a firm belief that any truth they find can be reconciled with their faith, Holmes challenged educators and Christians in academia to grapple with what they are interested in, noting that a strong faith can handle some turbulence while coming to a better understanding of God’s creation.

In reflection on his career, it is obvious he accomplished the goals he set forth for himself as a young teacher: he encouraged faith and learning in students, he countered the anti-intellectualism he found in the American church, and he helped prepare a great many students and Christian intellectuals for the various ranks of academia.

Wheaton's archives has collected some of Holmes’ chapel addresses and his papers are housed in the college's special collections.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at October 9, 2011 11:47PM | Comments (10)

Among today's many Supreme Court actions, the justices opted not to hear Sylvia Spencer et al v. World Vision, a case that had potentially significant implications for religious organizations' hiring practices.

The Supreme Court's denial of certiorari lets stand an August 2010 decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of World Vision and against three employees who were fired after the organization concluded that they did not believe that Jesus Christ is fully God.

"Today's action by the U.S. Supreme Court represents a major victory for the freedom of all religious organizations to hire employees who share the same faith--whether Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, or any other religion," World Vision U.S. president Richard Stearns said in a press release. "I am pleased, relieved and gratified with the court's action. After four years of litigation, we at World Vision U.S. may now put this matter behind us, and continue our policy of hiring Christians."

The denial brings an end to the World Vision lawsuit, but the issue of religious-based hiring will be one of the key issues before the Supreme Court this year. One of the key questions in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, which the court will consider on Wednesday, is whether an elementary school teacher can be considered a ministerial employee.

The question in the World Vision case was slightly different: at issue was less the "ministerial exemption" of the 1964 Civil Rights Act than a 1972 amendment to the act said churches and religious corporations and associations could use faith-based criteria in hiring. In the World Vision case, all sides agreed that the nature of the firings were religious, but the fired employees argued that World Vision was not truly religious since its work was humanitarian rather than religious, and not significantly different from groups like the Red Cross.

In the Hosanna-Tabor case, all the sides agree that the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church school is religious, but disagree on whether the employee, who was dismissed for issues related to her narcolepsy, was a ministerial employee. The congregation that runs the school argues that she was, noting that her duties included leading prayer, devotions, and religious studies.

In its World Vision decision, the 9th Circuit Court ruled that an organization is religious if it has a self-identified religious purpose, acts consistently with those purposes, and promotes itself publicly as religious. But the court did not rule on whether World Vision’s humanitarian work is religious. "Making that determination, the court said, "runs counter to the core of the constitutional guarantee against religious establishment."

Posted by Ted Olsen at October 3, 2011 10:58AM | Comments (10)