The Poverty and Justice Bible
Geoff Wallace writes:
We have customers asking us for the Poverty and Justice Bible published by the Bible Society at £12.99. However, Bible Society won’t sell it to us because they can only sell it to individual customers and not to the trade. They say that Harper Collins hold the copyright for the CEV text. Sam at Harper Collins says,
Hi Geoff, this is a bible society product and we have them special dispensation to create it using our material. We are trying to find a way to get this into the Christian trade through stl but currently the margin won’t work for any of us. But I will keep you informed of progress. Sam.
However, Bible Society are now offering it at £9.99 so there must be some margin in it somewhere.
The annoying thing is that the Bible looks really good and innovative and I am sure would sell really well and highlight issues that Christians need to face.
What do other shops think?
(Originally posted under ‘Feedback’)
John Duncan replies:
I have been asked about the Poverty and Justice bible on one occasion a few months ago – the customer didn’t actually want to order it so I had a look for it and found it on Bible Society website but didn’t follow it up. I think it would be a bible I would very much like to stock and I hope HC get their finger out.
(Originally posted under ‘Feedback’)
Which brings us back to Geoff’s question:
What do other shops think? Should HC and Bible Society get their act together and release it to the trade? Would your customers be interested? I’m sure plenty of the students at LST would go for it. Official website here: www.povertyandjusticebible.org
Sam: come on, brother — I think you can do better than this! 
July 28, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I’m with Geoff and Duncan, this is definitely an item I want to stock and sell, It is a bible I myself want and certainly one I can see as being a prime seller to youth Groups, and to the Justice and Peace group running at a local church.
The truth is that I think a lot of it is that it is about limiting markets and obtaining maximum share of profits – now don’t get me wrong that’s what we all want to do, but on the issue of a Bible – well that’s something that we should be endeavouring to get into as many hands as possible especially one with such key themes as this particular one.
After all its about poverty & Justice – justice is about equality – equality is about all getting a share – so there we go, as a matter of justice all bookshops should be given a fair crack at this one as well so as not to impoverish the main populace of this enriching resource.
July 29, 2008 at 9:11 am
I don’t know enough about margins (as proven before) so I’ll keep my opinions to myself on that. But my wife has a copy of this. It is interesting, although some of the highlighted passages are rather… random.
August 10, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Couldn’t agree more with Melanie. We also had enquiries about this Bible and I think its absence on our shelves might have been interprested as a lack of interest in poverty and justice! Not quite sure why the Bible Society are taking this angle as £12.99 whilst low priced for a possibly smaller-selling Bible isn’t unheard of. Like Melanie I can only conclude that maybe they are trying out direct marketing to see whether cutting out shops and distributors works for them. It would seem that it must be, as nearly a year on (I seem to dimly recall first seeing publicity about this before Christmas 2007?) they still haven’t offered it to the trade …
September 12, 2008 at 9:00 am
Phil, I noticed an article in a recent Bible Society magazine about this bible and saw for the first time that it was printed in China. Which to me feels a little… ironic, given the title and the difficulties of getting bibles in that country. Are many Christian books now printed in China?
September 12, 2008 at 9:01 am
Sorry, that was me. Forgot my own name for a moment there.
September 12, 2008 at 10:20 am
No worries, Joe. I forget mine sometimes. China’s human rights record also raises interesting questions about appropriateness…
Book review that may be of interest: The Great Divide. Might just import that into the blog here later…
September 12, 2008 at 6:28 pm
A bit of an irony with the printing of the bibles in China granted. But quite are few things are made in China nowadays…
Phil G: The human rights issue is certainly an interesting one. But China is not unique in having a bad human rights record. Some of the worst human rights abuses have been done by people who were Christian [e.g. the slave traders] and if we were to only allow the printing of bibles or such in companies with high moral standards, there wouldn’t be that many to choose from. After all, many countries’ history are littered with bad deeds of one kind or the other. We must remember that China is behind the ‘Western World’ in terms of development. Yes, it is more developed than some Western countries, but this is due to the extraordinary rate of development- modern China however is still fairly new ‘industrial’ country. Which means it is still evolving, in much the same way as a country like the U.K evolved. With time, i think China will catch up with the West in terms of social morals. It is not a pefect situation to have these bibles printed in China, but it is better that they are printed somewhere than nowhere at all. And maybe some of the messages from the poverty and justice bible might disseminate into China in the process of this printing…who knows?
September 13, 2008 at 12:33 am
Thanks Matt – points taken!
September 13, 2008 at 9:36 am
I’ve looked through a sample of books on my shelf and have yet to find any others printed in China, even the most recent bought. Quite a lot of them seem to be printed in the UK.