Podcast episode 22

Bible Publishers - Stewards or Gatekeepers?

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Read the article and footnotes here.

Let’s imagine that your pastor gets up one Sunday morning and announces: “If anyone wants to share passages from the Bible they need to ask me for permission first. I have to do this in order to carefully steward God’s Word, because people might abuse it. That said, I’ll be very generous in giving permission. I’ll even let you share it for free if you’re only using small portions. But if you use large portions, I’ll expect some payment to cover the costs of carefully stewarding God’s Word.” How would you feel?

This episode confronts the uncomfortable reality that modern translations are heavily copyrighted and commercialized. Jon unpacks the strict legal limits on quoting Scripture, the for-profit interests driving many publishers, and the burdensome barriers to getting permission to share God's Word.

Challenging common myths, he evaluates whether publishers are as generous, protecting, and well-intentioned as claimed. The conclusions are unsettling. Should Christians forbid freely sharing Scripture? Does charging for access align with the gospel? Join us as we envision reform where God's Word belongs to believers again.
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