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- An updated, "cool" version
of The Bible - retitled The Book - has been launched in the United States
with the most expensive literary promotion in history.
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- Gospel singers, children and evangelists
poured out of a giant copy of The Book to herald the start of the $7m advertising
campaign, which includes a series of star-studded TV commercials.
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- Anti-religion activists in the US have
branded the relaunch a blatant confidence trick, designed to make money.
They say it is a sign of weakness that religions have resorted to such
measures.
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- But the mastermind behind The Book, TV
evangelist and former presidential candidate, Pat Robertson, denied he
was promoting The Book for profit.
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- "Our goal is not to sell Bibles.
It is to make Bible-reading cool and American," he said.
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- Doug Knox, of publishers Tynedale House,
explained what he saw as the appeal of the updated version.
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- "The Book looks friendlier than
your typical leather Bible," he told the launch party.
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- "It's got a cool title, contemporary
package design and clear-reading, single-column type."
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- Mr Robertson's Christian Broadcasting
Network (CBN) is The Book's principal backer. CBN believes that statistics,
as well as religion, justify the massive showbiz advertising campaign.
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- Untapped market
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- More than 90 million Americans have not
read the Bible, suggesting a huge, untapped market of potential readers.
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- Critics object to what they see as a
cynical commercial ploy. Some observers have described the TV commercials
as more appropriate for a brand of washing powder than a religious publication.
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- American Atheists' spokesman Chris Pokrop
said that when a religion resorted to trying to make itself "cool"
it had "lost the point".
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- "People should be attracted to their
religion because it makes sense, it's meaningful and has something applicable
to say," he said.
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- "I think people are no longer turning
to the Bible and Christianity for their help and this is just a ploy to
sucker more people into the religion."
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