Should we get rid of books by disgraced authors?

Christians have always loved books. When Paul was in prison facing the cold winter he asked Timothy to bring him a coat and ‘my scrolls, especially the parchments’ (2 Tim. 4:13).

Despite the prevalence of e-readers, many Christians have bookcases groaning under the weight of their collection. At Moorlands College we have a three-storey library with over 40,000 physical books along with a vast range of e-books and journals.

Difficult decisions

But there are some difficult decisions to make about some titles that we have acquired. Over these past few years some prolific authors have grievously fallen, their reputation damaged perhaps beyond repair. Among evangelicals there are significant names. Bill Hybels’ books on leadership, Mark Driscoll’s books on marriage and faith, and Ravi Zacharias’ extensive works on apologetics are all now tainted titles. Should we pull them? Publishers have dropped the titles and no longer print many of them, but where do they fit in our libraries?

Though I group the books together, there are different reasons why an author may have lost credibility and a book been withdrawn from publication.

False content

One obvious issue is false content. Tony Anthony wrote Taming the Tiger, published in 2004 as a purported autobiography, in which he described a violent, criminal past along with work as a bodyguard and success as a Kung-Fu champion. Initially lauded by many Christians as a great evangelist, investigation of his book proved it to be largely invented. His ministry lost all support and his credibility evaporated. The publishers withdrew the book.

In a similar vein, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, published in 2010, was written by the father of a boy seriously injured in a road accident. Printed with ‘A True Story’ on the cover, the book tells of the child’s near-death experiences of angels and Jesus. Theologically, the tale told is suspicious – replete with folk religion, rather than Biblical faith – but in 2011, having sold a million copies, the child himself repudiated the book as ‘the most deceptive book ever’. The publishers withdrew the title.

Private lives

Books with erroneous content, fanciful lies, or guilty of plagiarism have all been pulled by publishers and withdrawn from sale. But titles by authors like Bill Hybels and Ravi Zacharias don’t quite face this issue (and we can add some British evangelical authors to that list). If it were not for issues in their private lives, most Christians would find some value in their books. The publishers have withdrawn their titles; should we discard them from our library collections too?

Obviously, fallen leaders and theologians are not a unique problem for evangelicals. We now know the Swiss theologian Karl Barth kept a mistress while a married man. Jean Vanier, a Roman Catholic theologian with 30 titles to his name, was found to have sexually abused six women. John Howard Yoder, a theologian who published widely on ethics, was found to have abused over 100 women while teaching at the Anabaptist Mennonite Seminary.

A slippery slope?

But what about the writings of celebrity evangelicals? Some people invoke the ‘slippery slope’ fallacy at this point. Who should cast the first stone? If we pulp books because of an author’s sin rather than factual inaccuracy would not every book be pulped? I think this misses a distinctive point about evangelical theology, and apologetics in particular.

Evangelical theology is rooted in the gospel that changes lives. It is based on the belief that theology must be integrated with lifestyle. Of course we all do sin and fail. But we don’t try and live a double life over decades. Who we are is part of what we say.

The disparity between the content of Ravi Zacharias’ apologetic claims and the content of his deceitful life destroy his writings’ credibility. My favourite title of a Bill Hybel book is Who You Are When No One’s Looking: Choosing Consistency, Resisting Compromise. It is a good title. And it sold 300,000 copies until it was withdrawn. But how could anyone take such advice from the author who wrote it now?

Not destroying books

We are not pulping the books we take off the shelves. They remain in boxes. One day a postgraduate student will probably want to research what went wrong or investigate deceit in the church or the perils of leadership. Those will be good reasons to consult them. But their content, however accurate and useful, will always be tainted by the pain caused by those who wrote them.