The Rest of the Story

  A few weeks ago, BreakPoint listeners heard me discuss the partnership we shared with Amazon.com—that is, until we found out the on-line bookstore was peddling books that promoted pedophilia. We expressed our concern to a representative of Amazon.com, but the company's response was, in effect, we're sorry you feel that way, but Amazon.com is committed to serving all its customers. We cancelled our partnership at once, thinking that was the end of the matter. But over the following weeks we received letters from several BreakPoint listeners who gave us the rest of the story—an exciting story that reminds us that we should never give up on reforming the culture. BreakPoint first set up the partnership with Amazon.com as a service to our listeners and Internet subscribers. We wanted to provide them with a way to purchase recommended books quickly and conveniently. But then we discovered that Amazon.com sold a book called Varieties of Man Boy Love, as well as other titles on pedophilia. Keep in mind that pedophilia is a crime in all 50 states. So we decided to have nothing to do with Amazon.com, and I went on the air to inform BreakPoint listeners why we were ending the relationship. Almost immediately, we began hearing from our listeners with wonderful stories of Christian activism. Instead of just getting mad and doing nothing, a number of BreakPoint listeners contacted Amazon. They asked the company to stop selling the offensive book. Several sent copies of the BreakPoint commentary directly to Amazon. One listener also emailed the commentary to his friends and urged them to contact Amazon as well. He later told us that his sister-in-law was so outraged that she called Amazon and threatened to cancel a huge shipment of Christmas books! Some enterprising listeners then sent out the commentary to opinion-makers, including radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Dr. Laura recounted the entire story over the air, expressing her own outrage over a company that, in essence, supports illegal behavior. A BreakPoint listener I'll call Elizabeth heard Dr. Laura's broadcast and contacted Amazon.com. She pressed the company to take into account the negative publicity it was receiving, both on Christian radio stations through BreakPoint, and on secular stations from Dr. Laura. A few days later, Elizabeth checked Amazon's listings again. She discovered that Varieties of Man/Boy Love was no longer being offered for sale. Chalk one up for the side of righteousness! "We believe God answered many prayers concerning this," Elizabeth wrote. "I am encouraged that change can be effected when women and men are willing to speak the truth." Amen, Elizabeth. Too often Christians become discouraged over the culture wars, and think we cannot make a difference. But this story shows that we CAN reform the culture—even cyber culture—one battle at a time. We at BreakPoint were delighted to hear from so many listeners. You showed that you are not passive complainers but active, committed, and willing to go out of your way to make a difference. So don't listen to those who say we've lost the culture war and can't make a difference. We can change the culture if we are willing, as Elizabeth put it, to stand up and speak the truth.

11/9/99