Why Book Endorsements Matter
Paula White hit the jackpot.
She parlayed her seat on President Trump’s’ spiritual advisory council into some high profile endorsements for her new book, just like she parlayed her personality and warped theology into fame in the first place.
For those of us who have written books, it’s reason for more than a little disgust.
The reason for that disgust is that the single biggest factor in book sales isn’t content, but the size of your “platform” and even more importantly, the ability to get attention outside that platform.
Most of us never are able to get outside our own bubbles of influence.
One of the best ways to get that attention is to have people with larger platforms endorse your book.
Paula White had a large platform, but a very specific one…a niche of Christianity viewed with suspicion by the mainstream.
Greg Laurie, Franklin Graham, and the rest of the gang fixed that for her by endorsing her nonsense on some of the biggest platforms in Christendom.
Bingo!…a #1 best seller.
Now Paula White and her chirpy heterodoxy have now been introduced to millions of new readers among Baptists, Calvary Chapel attendees, and broader evangelicalism.
Politics have triumphed over orthodoxy…but that is not unusual.
It simply tells you what is most important to the endorsers.
I’m hoping Greg will endorse my new book on how cats are the keys to wealth and the favor of God…
Make your own application…
Oh dang! Miss hobag b at it again. It wasn’t enuf 2 prostitute her faith & “do”Benny Hinn. Now she wants us 2 support her God of mammon so she can live the lifestyle 2 which she b accustomed. She even whore white on the cover of the book! Great ploy to those who eat up idiocy. May the gluttons of stupid get their fill!
My own application: Don’t hold your breath waiting for that endorsement from Greg Laurie ?…
Duane,
You’re probably right… 🙂
JM, you comment is profane and unworthy of anyone reading a Christian blog. You have sunk below the level of the woman you are castigating. Repent.
Boy…back in the day, I doubt Greg Laurie would have wanted anything to do with someone with
the views of a Payola White.
But today…well, politics makes for strange bedfellows. Kinda sad, IMHO.
Shocked,
Take a breath and clutch those pearls a little looser.
“Profane” is a relative cultural judgment. See Paul’s cleaned up his dismissal of those insisting on circumcision that they cut something entirely off.
I think what JM is driving at is that a sellout has a market of dupes who are supporting the most corrupt politician in our recent history, and the subculture she comes from is full of fear, conspiracy theories and tribalism who wouldn’t know TheWhoreOfBabylon if she were wearing a white dress on the cover of her best selling book in the fall of 2019.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
“Chirpy heterodoxy” .. ?
JM, he do jus fine describing dat situashun… LOL
?? ? Go for it Michael! I support you!❤️
Traveling, but finally back at keyboard
“Shocked”–if truth is offensive, guess who has the problem? G-man is right. The bible had many allusions to sin that were offensive. They were supposed to b. Unrepentance & calling evil good is offensive to God. He referred to the idolatrous Jews as ones who spread their legs to anyone. Get over it.
Em–u da bomb! (That’s a good thing! ?)
For those of you who are Republicans who cannot support Trump, he just tweeted that you are human scum.
Just think: All you conservatives who want a pro-life court, who disagree w/ same-sex marriage and forcing sex hormones on little kids in an attempt to change their gender (as if that were really possible), who want to see religious freedom upheld- you know, all the things that caused you to be a conservative in the first place- since your moral outlook cannot bring you to vote for the morally bankrupt Trump who had sex with a call girl while his wife was just out of the hospital with their new baby- THIS man thinks you are human scum.
So the president thinks my Christian neighbors who are the absolute salt of the earth, who love God and man, who have been faithful to the Lord for six decades and are the most humble people you will ever meet, who have been involved in the pro-life movement and all manner of Christian works of charity, who happen to be Republicans- Trump thinks they are human scum.
He is not worthy to mow their lawn.
“Now Paula White and her chirpy heterodoxy have now been introduced to millions of new readers among Baptists, Calvary Chapel attendees, and broader evangelicalism.”
I thought this was considered a virtue around here – to get us all to read outside of our own traditions. Now it becomes known and available to us and it seems to be not such a good thing?
***as a note – I have never watched, listened to or read any of her materials. Couldn’t tell you one thing about her beliefs. ***
MLD,
Your baiting and trolling is no longer welcome, nor will it be tolerated.
Xenia,
I was thinking about this last night…what Trump represents to me.
He is the old man in all of us…prideful, lusting, grasping, and utterly unable to serve anything or anyone but self.
He is a figure of sin incarnate.
What baiting & trolling? – I thought it odd that you placed a Christian writer’s book off limits.
But I guess I should not comment on the book as I have not read it.
Reasonable people understand that though I believe strongly in reading among all the orthodox traditions that some authors are decidedly heterodox and of limited spiritual value..
Reasonable people also understand that the real issue here is the hypocrisy of “leaders” endorsing doctrines they have railed against because of political affiliation.
That’s the last word on that…
I looked it up. It seems the book is biographical. But hey, even if I knew her I wouldn’t think much of her as she has usurped the office of pastor in defiance of Scripture. That should be enough for the boyz to not endorse her. 🙂
Xenia,
I had to look up that tweet to believe it. I can’t imagine that the most putrid speech against any American is coming, not from enemy countries, but from the POTUS. This is a real low point in country’s political discourse.
Proud to be “Human Scum”!
The most disgusting president in my lifetime!
Lovely Scum! Wonderful Scum!
Lovely Scum! Wonderful Scum!
Scu-u-u-u-u-u-u-m
Scu-u-u-u-u-u-u-m
Scu-u-u-u-u-u-u-m
Scu-u-u-u-u-u-u-m
Lovely Scum! (Lovely Scum!)
Lovely Scum! (Lovely Scum!)
Lovely Scum!
Scum, Scum, Scum, Scum!
With apologies to Terry Jones / Michael Edward Palin / Fred Tomlinson
Kudos to any post able to get vitriol from such a disparate group of scorners. She’s a Mississippi girl with roots in Elvis’ hometown. Greg and Franklin should get her on the evangelistic tours as a celebrity testimony, quid pro quo.
Is this biggest Christian book scandal since the David Jeremiah sales padding scam? Didn’t seem to hurt him at all.
Mark Driscoll had a plagiarism scandal and a ResultSource scandal during basically one calendar year stretch and that was part of how the David Jeremiah revelation came to light, if memory serves.
That was also the period in which a couple of other folks who used ResultSource were discovered. There’s some profs from Seattle Pacific University past who don’t work there any more.
ResultSource in Christian publishing seems to have been swept under the rug. Driscoll’s plagiarism has since his resignation been described as alleged.
Douglas Wilson and Randy Booth had plagiarism in A Justice Primer so thoroughly proven they retracted the book only to reissue a second edition last year as though nothing too much happened.
Xenia,. If we are not scum then we must be racist deplorable Russian asset everything phobia you can think of. Nothing said here will change my endorsement for Trump. He has been unfairly attacked, accused and maligned like no one I can think of. He is our duely elected president that many simple can not accept. Get over it because we probably will have another 4 years of him.
Steve,
We aren’t going to turn this site into another political battleground.
On the other hand, I will not accept, nor will I “get over it” in regard to speaking to the words and actions of someone I believe to be both dangerous and evil.
The “editorial board” of this site is completely opposed to Trump without affirming any of the candidates opposing him at this point…on the grounds of biblical morality and ethics.
We may not say anything else about the subject as I do believe it’s fruitless to try to engage it at this juncture in history.
Michael,
Thank you, I was hoping you would stop the political direction this blog post was going. Now regarding the book, I haven’t read it so can’t comment. Endorsements don’t bother me. Call me silly, but I am able to make a distiction between a book endorsement and a person endorsement. Maybe the book is awesome. I wonder who here has read it that can comment?
I will not “get over it.” How condescending.
But as Michael, rightly I think, prefers we not discuss politics, I will not bring it up again.
Xenia,
I think there are times when we have to speak, as you did yesterday.
That was perfectly acceptable and necessary, I think.
I’m just so conflict weary when the conflict produces nothing more than more conflict…
Xenia,. I apologize if I offended you with my comment “get over it”. I guess I am confused why it was taken as condescending? From my perspective, we can either accept Trump as our president or do everything possible including every possible investigation and going down the road of an unprecedented impeachment that will go no where. I’m not referring to you here, but I hope some folks can over come or get over their Trump Derangement Syndrome and not spew out hatred for the guy at every bpossible opportunity. Enough said,. Won’t comment any more on this.
Ok, without discussing politics, when people say ‘get over it” they usually mean my point of view or comment is not even worth further consideration. “Get over it; what you have to say doesn’t matter, my side is going to win, just take it.” I myself have been guilty of this; I used to tell some of the victims here of church abuse to hurry up and “get over it.” I am sorry I used to say this.
Yes, it’s condescending but I accept your apology because I know you are a good guy. 🙂
Xenia, thank you for your apology. The “get over it ” comment was meant for those that do not accept the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency. And believe me their are plenty of those folks lurking. For what it’s worth, it was not about anyone getting over their personal opinion of him.
Because of this thread I just listened/watched a Paula White Cain sermon on YouTube. Actually skipped through it because there really wasn’t much there and yet she filled her 45 min slot on stage.
One line summary: Don’t hate your crisis, God has greater things for you!
He sermon made me think, what if there’s nothing greater or maybe her definition of “greater things” don’t match mine?
Kind of reminds me of the last election’s slogan, “Make America Great Again!”
What does that mean and what is the image or idea of a great America?
When I hear, read or see all this hype it makes me wonder what all these ideas mean.
I also wonder people like PWC can crank out books so fast.
BTW, Xenia I get it. Thanks!
A lot of popular religious books are 80 percent repetitious fluff. They don’t have enough material for even a scant 200 pages because there is nothing new to say about the Gospel that hasn’t already been said over the past 2000 years. If you just read the first and last chapters (or paragraphs) that is usually sufficient.
Factual books about church history, etc. are an exception.
Xenia,
I used to get lots of books sent to me by publishers to review here.
Your assessment is right on…and why I told them to keep their books…
Here’s why book endorsements should mean something: J.I. Packer.
Anytime I’d see him endorsing a book, I knew I could breathe easier.
And I’ve seen his name on a lot of books over the years!
You won’t see him endorsing a book by Payola White or any of these
other magical thinkers.
bob1,
His endorsements have gotten him in a world of hurt over the years…he doesn’t do it much at all now.
The thought police are strong among the Reformed…
I hate to say it, but it is what it is.
If Beto O’Rourke, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders are the best that the DNC can field in 2020, they will guarantee another Trump win.
Joe Biden is the only one they can realistically sell to mom-and-pop America.
Muff,
The field is…problematic.
However, I will write in one of my cats before I’ll vote for the incumbent.
Michael,
I’m really sorry that’s been the case for Dr. Packer. I’m sure he was also
called the Antichrist and worst for heading up the “Evangelicals and
Catholics Together” movement. I always assumed it was acts of
selflessness that Dr. Packer endorsed so many books.
bob1,
Dr. Packer is a kind man and in some ways, a quintessential Anglican.
He has never been afraid to read or to suggest reading that was outside a given box.
He knew what his name on a cover blurb meant to people like you and me and he was gracious to share the goodwill that went with it.
I think a lot of people used him, but his reward will be great.
Yes, the ECT caused him grief and still does.
Some of the Reformed glitterati were trashing him this week on Twitter for it…20 years later…
Muff,. I think you are right. You might actually see HRC enter the frey looking for a rematch. The field is that bad.
Interesting thread dealing with manipulation, shallow religious platitudes, political gossip and trust – religious and civic. And it all fomented out of a post on the efficacy of book endorsements?? ?
Joe Biden? President? Guess all us old victims of senility will vote for him…. God will decide who our next President will be and i think it is true that we (collective “we”) do get the governments we deserve… ?
Since JI Packer came up, I just thought I’d share that last night I went to a lecture by my friend Jens Zimmerman who will be taking the JI Packer chair of Theology at Regent College, as he was talking about Bonhoeffer’s Christian humanism and his new book, rooted in patristic incarnational theology. A very different take than Eric Metaxas, and far more academically solid in my opinion. I think Xenia especially would have appreciated it, as it did have quite an Orthodox feel.
https://www.regent-college.edu/about-us/news/2019/new-j-i-packer-professor-of-theology
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/dietrich-bonhoeffers-christian-humanism-9780198832560?cc=ca&lang=en&
It’s weird having a friend who has two PhDs and speaks for 45 minutes where you only understand about half of what he says, even though it’s all English words! And to think I lived in his basement suite when I was first married!
Michael, I’d write in Stormy Daniels before I’d cast my ballot for the incumbent.
Thank you Steve from Canada!
I want that book…
If an office holder declares the very citizens he has been elected to serve “human scum,” then like a husband who abuses his spouse, that person has abandoned his divine station and calling and is entitled to no honor or respect.
Human scum — this is what the Nazis first did against Jews and other undesirables — they dehumanized them. Trump’s done it with all kinds of groups. It’s unacceptable. Period
Trump specifically addressed the Never Trump faction of his party – not the general electorate as is being mischaracterized here.
Never Trumpers are a well defined group of perhaps 2,000 influential Republican politico type functionaries. (actually most are quite conservative Republicans.) So, in the end he was targeting his own.
Now my question is this – is there a qualitative difference between addressing the political opposition as “human scum” vs addressing them as “deploarables”?
HRC dehumanized 63 million Trump supporters in this Nazi type tactic and I am sure several of you still put your mark next to her name in 2016.
It’s comical to watch Christians feign outrage.
Trump specifically addressed the Never Trump faction of his party – not the general electorate as is being mischaracterized here.<<,
The people I described, myself and my saintly neighbors are (or were) Never-Trump Republicans.
I didn't approve of the use of the word "deplorable," either.
Just because one dislikes Trump does not make them a fan of the Dems.
Even so, is it proper to call the 2000 people “human scum?”
Xenia, you can call yourself whatever you like but that is not what defines the label. They were a specific group within the party.
It’s political talk, in fact in the not to distant past this type of speech was on bold display in newspapers through political cartoons.
It’s time for folks to toughen up or run to their safe places.
On a personal note, I would prefer Trump reel it back in a notch or two but I don’t think he will. But he speech does not offend me, but I am sure it does others.
It’s comical to watch Christians feign outrage <<<
I remember when I used to find you comical.
I may not be as old as the non-offended Methuselah here, but I’ve been following politics for over 40 years and I have never heard a sitting president call his citizens human scum. Many people he has never met nor known personally, he has classified as human scum for the sole reason that they don’t support him.
It’s not time to baptize his putrid speech for our President. I don’t care what some other generation might have allowed. I wouldn’t accept it from my children and don’t want them hearing it from our country’s highest leader. It’s comical that self-identifying Christians defend that remark as normal or acceptable.
Unlike many here politics do not keep me awake at night. I think I am on my 13th president, since Truman, half have been in trouble, half did not finish a 2nd term and as a Republic we have survived – and we will survive Trump – perhaps even both terms 🙂
What exactly is “human scum?”. My mother used to call the solidified milk on the top of my cup of cocoa scum. .. I suppose it was digestible, but not tasty …?… I think i would prefer to be scum than to be deplorable…. dunno ?.. ?
Em, scum is what lives on the top of swamps. Trump has been talking about draining the swamp forever. He was targeting Republican establishment that reside in the DC swamp that are never trumpers. Why ordinary folks take offense at this is somewhat bizzare, commical and a bit sad.
I’ve started up my blog(s) again, if anyone is interested. Nothing at all important, but it’s fun to write about stuff.
https://mizmooz.wordpress.com/
Xenia’s Garden. Some pf my other blogs on specific topics, long neglected, are listed at the bottom of the post. By no means feel obligated to visit, but some of you used to visit back in the day. If it’s inappropriate to advertise my blogs, Michael, you can delete this post with no hard feelings at all on my part. 🙂
The political snipes aren’t edifying… lurkers are the main audience. I was likely guilty of it in the past. Controlling my tongue….
As for Paula White, I question any book whose cover highlights the author as such. Like Joel Osteen and others… They’re pretty people. Sex (or an image of a desired ideal) sells, even if implicitly, and this is what it is. Aldous Huxley warned about advertising back in 1955 in Brave New World Revisited.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.christianpost.com/amp/paula-white-christians-will-stand-accountable-before-god-if-they-vote-against-trump.html
For a real laugh, zoom in on the photo of White Cane’s face.
Here is something I seriously don’t understand: Wouldn’t the Christian (or even non-Christian) Trump supporters really prefer Mike Pence as president? He *sincerely* holds to the issues that are dear to the heart of many Christians without the buffoonery. Is it just a matter of pride? Why not let Donald slide peacefully into private life and embrace Mike Pence?
Xenia, this is only my personal opinion and may not be representative so take it for what its worth. I’m also only answering it because you asked. Its not pride. I’m not quite sure Pence is quite tough enough to stand up to the hypocritical democratic media elites and super aggressive radical left that are in bed with each other and are hell bent to destroy conservatives in any and all matters. They have been trying to destroy Trump from day one not because of his buffoonery but because of his policies and what he stands for. Judge Kavanaugh was treated the same way and they did everything in the book to destroy him. Only Donald Trump has that kind of resiliency and why he was elected. Trump, Pence seems to be a winning combo.
CATS: THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM, WEALTH, AND GOD’S FAVOR
^ I assume this is still forthcoming while you line up those endorsements?