The
nation's second-largest Christian book retailer has pulled megachurch pastor
Mark Driscoll's books from its website and 186 stores.
Leaders
at the Southern Baptist Convention's LifeWay Christian Resources informed
stores on Friday to stop selling books by the Seattle pastor who has been in
hot water.
Last
week, leaders of the church-planting network Acts 29 removed Driscoll and his
churches from the group he helped found and asked that he "step down from
ministry for an extended time and seek help."
Driscoll
has been an influential but edgy pastor within conservative evangelical circles
for several years. His Mars Hill Church, based in Seattle, attracts some 14,000
people at 15 locations across five states. He has been provocative,
occasionally profane and has faced allegations of plagiarism and inflating book
sales.
The
mushrooming set of allegations led the publishing arm to suspend sales while it
"monitors the developments of his ministry," said LifeWay
media-relations manager Marty King.
"It
was a cumulative effect," King said. "The Acts 29 leadership asking
him to step down was certainly a part of that."
At
the time of the decision, LifeWay's stores were selling just one of Driscoll's
titles, A Call to Resurgence, King said.
A
spokesperson for Mars Hill did not respond to LifeWay's decision
