Is it Desecration or a Typo?

Costco marked the Bible as Fiction when they were price-tagged.  Tick, tick, tick, tick… Is that time passing or is that the countdown of a bomb about to explode?  It was enough to make Good Morning America!  For about 30 seconds…

To get a measure of the potential devastation, I googled “Costco Desecrates the Bible” and did not get a hit until the fifth search page.  The lead on the Google search was “Satanists Troll Westboro Baptist Church, Hold ‘Pink Mass’ Ritual To Turn Fred Phelps’ Mother Into A Lesbian” * with a reference to the Costco story in the little summary paragraph beneath.  However, when I searched the page at www.inquisitr.com, I could not find the Costco article mentioned.  And I don’t care enough to do a separate search on inquisitor.com to learn more. 

 

* I kid you not!

Oh dear, I think I tipped my hand. 

There is a real danger of overreaction in moments like this.  Christians in this country will ‘hold Costco accountable’.  My hope is that there will be so few that this will just slip away for more important things.  Like the future of American troops in Afghanistan.  Real negotiations over the Iran nuclear program.  Fledgling democracy in Kazakhstan.

There is also a real danger of under-reaction in moments like this.   Guilty as charged.

But let’s play it out for a moment.  Worst case scenario for the over-reactors…somebody put on the wrong tag.  The biggest trouble at that point would be if $14.99 were less than the real cost of the Costco Scriptures.

Worst case scenario for the under-reactors: Some subversive Jesus-hater snuck into the ranks of the God-fearing employees of Costco (unless Costco is actually a devil-worshipping place like Walmart…), and they decided to perpetuate a grand gesture on the futility of Christianity.  Cross burning is so passé, desecrating a Crucifix is really, really Catholic in its hatred…NO…LET US BRAND THE BIBLE AS FICTION!!!!!  Dan Brown, your next thriller awaits!  Not since Jesus had…no…I won’t give it away…even now…

You want to know why I am even commenting on this?  Because it made the news.  It made the news for the ‘uh oh’ factor, just in case a disaster comes, we want to film it.  My honest reaction is this:

It was a slip of the pricing machine.  But God forbid it wasn’t, my honest reaction is this:

Call it fiction, call it demonic, call it boring, call it stupid, call the bible anything you want, burn it, bash it, flush it down the toilet if you want.  You really think you can go head to head with God?  I would pray for someone with that much anger that the Spirit of God would lead them to open the book instead of abusing it. 

Then we are starting something good.