Going to start off by saying I actually started writing this several weeks ago, as I was gathering my thoughts and making some notes, I started feeling bad, and when I finally got bad enough to go to the Doctor, low and behold I tested positive for The Rona!  It hit me pretty hard, so I’ve been out of it for a while.  Still not over it but doing a lot better.

Secondly this blog post is going to be a little different than the previous ones. For this post I’m not going to get theological and we aren’t going to dig into scripture. So, you ask, what is this going to be about then? Well I’m glad you asked!

There have been a couple of seemingly unrelated events that have me thinking about some things and as I thought through them, they may not be as unrelated as I first thought.  We all have heard about how Amazon pulled the plug on Parler by knocking them off their servers, because they wouldn’t shut down certain accounts. Now I’m a great believer that private companies and individuals are perfectly within their rights to do business or not with who ever they choose (this should apply to florists and cake bakers, just as well as Amazon, but that’s a discussion for another day), but another event got me to thinking about something else.

Our pastor leads a group of men mostly from our church (though we have a few from other area churches) we meet once a month and we receive a book then the next month we discuss that book together, after reading it. Each man participating pays a predetermined amount up front that covers all the books for the year as well as a banquet we have with our wives in December. Then through the year our pastor orders the books for the whole group.

He ordered the book we are kicking off with this year, but Amazon would only allow him to order 4 books at a time. He asked me to order 4 more so we could get enough books here in time which I gladly did.

Now I didn’t have to order them from Amazon, there are other outlets I could have ordered from, but Amazon is so easy, put in what you want and 2 day later it magically shows up in my mailbox, and thanks to being a Prime member, I didn’t even have to pay for that 2 day shipping!

But as I considered this, I had to wonder, what is the price we all may one day have to pay for that ease and convenience? Amazon holds the strings that can just decide we don’t want the general public to have access to Parler. (this goes much deeper than Parler, or Amazon and applies to any platform.  Haven’t ourselves and others banned from Facebook, Twitter, or fill in the blank for something they didn’t like us saying.)

Now Amazon has limited their customers from buying more than 4 of a certain book.  Why 4? Why not 2 or, 1 or, none. They say it’s due to limited stock, but do they really need a reason? Couldn’t they just decide that they don’t think certain books should not be read and not sell them anymore? 

So, what would we do then? Maybe we could get it from a Christian Book seller like Lifeway, or Christian Book Distributer.  Or maybe we couldn’t? What if our need for ease and convenience causes these other suppliers to go out of business? Lifeway has already closed all their brick and mortar stores, what’s next?

Here is what I plan to do, when I want or need a book (according to my wife my book buying is close to an addiction) I’ll look first at the smaller publishers such as Founders Ministries, Reformation Heritage Book, or the dozens of others out there.  If I can’t find it there, I’ll look at Lifeway, CBD, or some other Christian book seller.  Only as a last resort will I order a Christian Book through Amazon, or Barnes and Noble and such.

Will the cost be a little higher? Will I have to pay for shipping? Will it take longer to get here?  The answer to all of these is probably yes, but I personally would rather see some of these other resources stick around to have the books I want and need available than to have Amazon or some other big company decide for me what I should or should not read.

I’m not suggesting that others must do this the way I am, but I am suggesting that you should think about it!