My Virgin Crossroads Experience

Two hours ago, I was, for the first time, pacing the floors of “Crossroads Books and Music” located near the largest mall in South Dakota. The Crossroads website describes itself in the following terms:

“For over 30 years, Crossroads Books & Music has provided the finest in Christian products to the Sioux Empire. Our 18,000 sq ft facility allows us to carry the best in Christian books, Bibles, music and gifts.”

In short, visiting Crossroads was an unpleasant experience as a Christian and life-time resident of South Dakota. And it is my contention that if this descriptive claim of Crossroads is true, it is highly indicative of the horrendously poor condition of mainstream evangelical Christianity. If this description is false, it constitutes a misrepresentation of what true Christianity is and what fine Christian resources really are.

First-Impressions

The first thing I learned about Crossroads is that I had been misinformed: it was not primarily a bookstore, but a consumer-oriented place to buy generically “Christian” themed products, including everything from napkins to golf-balls. The symmetrical building was split into two sections, one with the crafts and art, and another with the books, DVDs (with rentals), and t-shirts. Since the store description claims “to carry the best in Christian books, Bibles,” and since I’m an author myself, I naturally gravitated away from the pot-metal trinkets and towards the bookshelves.

Here’s what I saw. Like most stores, all of the bookcases were the same size, and the topical proportions according bookcases alone left me speechless. There were two bookcases on “Theology” and twelve on “Fiction.” There were three bookcases on “Women” and a half of a book case on “World Religions,” which (unfortunately) summed up the entire field of apologetics, philosophy, and polemics for the whole store. As I continued strolling in and out of the isles, I also noticed that virtually every book on the shelves was “on display,” facing the isle instead of being stacked sideways. At the very least, this was an incredibly insufficient use of space. It was more likely, however, that this unnecessary spread indicated both a lack of selection and a lack of buyer-demand. Either the store had over-expanded their floor space, or no one came to Crossroads to buy their books so that their supply was minimal. Whatever the case, I certainly wasn’t walking in Barnes and Noble (which was only a few blocks away).

No God Here…

If the theology section of Crossroads is the “finest” in the Sioux Empire, God help us. There were about a half-dozen books on Jesus, but almost none on Jesus’ work (Christology, atonement, etc.). There were no systematic theologies anywhere in the store (unless one considers the Westminster Shorter Catechism or Luther’s Catechism to be in that category). Although there were several “quick references” and perhaps a generic religious encyclopedia, there were no books on historical theology or church history. There were no books on Reformed theology, no books on theological method (how to do theology), and no books on bibliology (doctrine of Scripture, inspiration, etc.). There were no books on creation, no books on the nature and attributes of God (knowledge, aseity, Trinity, etc.), no books on biblical epistemology (nature of knowledge), no books on sin and repentance, and no books on the essential message and nature of the gospel. Crossroads did, however, have Reinventing Jesus and Bock’s Jesus According to Scripture. Phew, I thought, I guess they have “something”! Of course, these books didn’t belong to the “Theology” section anyway, but to “Apologetics” or “Historical Studies,” instead.

I sighed, started to walk, and hoped things would get better. They didn’t. The “Biblical Studies” section was even more depressing than the last. There were dozens and dozens of anecdotal booklets and DVDs. But there was not one single, full-sized, full-length book on the shelves! I did not find one resource of any form on exegesis, exegetical studies, background contextual studies on Judaism or Greco-Roman culture, hermeneutics, interpretation, and the like. If Crossroads was any indication of mainstream evangelical Christianity, it became evident that “Biblical Studies” books about both the New and the Old Testament have been effectively replaced by DVD “Bible studies” of various topics. People apparently want milk and not meat.

…No Thinking There…

The apologetics section of Crossroads consisted of one bookcase entitled “World Religions” with two empty bottom shelves. There were less than ten full-length volumes in this section. There were no books specifically written on the major world religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, or Mormonism. There were no books on the history of apologetics, books on apologetic methodology, books on the biblical nature of apologetics, or books on integrating the defense of the faith into the life of the Christian. There were no books on heresies that existed during any point in church history, no books on confessions or creeds, and no books on textual criticism. There were no books on Eastern orthodoxy, no books on Roman Catholicism, no books on the Reformation, no books on Eastern mysticism and cults, and no books on any field of philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophical theology, philosophy of religion, contemporary philosophy, historic philosophy, or classic philosophy from any author written at any time written about any world religion – either in the form of primary or secondary source work. There were also no books on the authority, infallibility, and inspiration of Scripture, nor were there any books on the historical reliability of the New or Old Testament. There were no books on Darwinian evolution, Intelligent Design, or the debates in science and religion. In brief, there were no books from any of the leading Christian apologists that have ever existed in human history, not Tertullian, Ireneaus, Athanasius, Calvin, Turretin, Warfield, Van Til, Schaeffer, Bahnsen, or White. And, again, this wasn’t true for just this section, but for the entire store. People apparently don’t want to think about the gospel, and they sure is heck don’t want to defend the gospel.

Crossroads was seriously starting to look like a joke. Perhaps they put all their attention towards Bibles. This was, after all, a “Christian” store.

So, I walked over to the Bible section. There were six Lutheran Study Bibles, but only one ESV Study Bible. Furthermore, there was only one standard, non-edited, NASB Bible. There were no Bibles in the original languages, either Greek or Hebrew; there were no interlinears, no parallels, and no diglots. There were no Vulgates, no Septuagints, and no Majority or Masoretic texts. There were no Peshittas, no Textus Receptus’, and, by all means, no Nestle-Aland 27^th Editions or Hebraica Stuttgartensias. This is the finest the Sioux Empire has to offer? I said to myself. I hope the “Sioux Empire” doesn’t extend beyond the parking lot of this building!

O’ Gospel, Where Art Thou?

I made a quick swing around the store to see what resources were exclusively and repetitiously featured on the ends of the bookcases. This usually provides a person with some indication of where a bookstore’s priorities really are. Let’s not forget, some individual or group of individuals associated with Crossroads specifically decided to present certain books in front of the eyes of wondering shoppers.

I found numerous, flashy copies of It’s Your Time by Joel Osteen, “God Sightings” gear (complete with Bible, manuals, and multi-media), High Performance Health, Overweight Kids, Cooking for Life, Captivating, and among others, Hermie and Friends. Oh, there was also some music CDs.

Unless all of these resources were simply placed there by mistake, Crossroads is evidently most concerned about a self-help, self-success, physical-solution, pseudo-feminine, children’s-entertainment-gospel-less, Christless, sinless, Godless, repentanceless, man-centered, demandless religion that has absolutely nothing to do with the person, work, and teachings of Jesus Christ and the world’s Creator. I suppose this explains – among other things – why the best-seller Christless Christianity was nowhere to be found.

Conclusion: Will the Real Christianity Please Stand Up?

Perhaps my evaluation is all wrong. Maybe none of this means anything. Maybe the entire stock of the store and the laundry list of man-centered and gospel-absent items don’t indicate anything about Christians’ understanding of “finest resources” or about what Christians are really looking for. Maybe Christians are finding Crossroads useful. Maybe Christians are even finding Crossroads sufficient.

But, we need help if that’s the case. And may God help the unbeliever who walks into Crossroads thinking that this is what real Christianity is all about.

If there is any place for the “finest” and “best” “Christian” resources in the largest city of South Dakota, Barnes and Noble wins hands down. It has virtually everything Crossroads lacks, which is virtually everything related to the Christian God and the Christian gospel.

Do what mainstream evangelicalism doesn’t want you to do: buy an ESV Study Bible and read it every day without thinking about how wonderful you are (i.e. Joel Osteen). Buy a volume on history like Shelly’s Church History in Plain Language and stop thinking that your vision for church is original )i.e. emergent church). Buy a systematic theology like Grudem’s Bible Doctrine and finish it in a year without giving up and settling for anecdotal booklets. In short, be a thoughtful Christian.