LifeWay Christian Store Won’t Sell Six-Time Grammy Award-Winning New Christmas Album

About half — 51.3% — of retailers admit that they wish they could change prices every four hours. Some retailers, however, have even more power than that and can sell or not sell something based on how Christian the content is.

LifeWay Christian Resources, one of the largest Christian retailers in the world, has decided that they will not be selling Grammy Award-winning musician Amy Grant’s new Christmas CD, Tennessee Christmas. Grant’s manager, Jennifer Cooke, believes the reason for the store’s decision is because the music is “not Christian enough.”

“There is an odd question and reality in the Christian music business,” said Cooke. “What is a ‘Christian enough’ song or project recorded by someone who is ‘Christian enough’ that deems it worth of exposure and commercial viability via Christian radio and Christian retail?”

According to the Christian Post, Cooke, a devout Christian herself, has watched Grant lead Bible studies and helped hundreds of kids through a faith-based youth camp.

CNS News reports that LifeWay will not discuss why they make their certain product decisions.

“We’re presented every week with thousands of new products that we can carry,” said Marty King, a spokesman for LifeWay, the Southern Baptist retailer. “There are hundreds of thousands of products that we could carry online or in our stores. We’re only able to carry a few thousand.”

Grant who has earned six Grammy Awards and is witnessing her album reach the number three spot on Billboard’s Holiday Albums chart, posted on her Facebook to express that she fully accepts LifeWay’s decision.

“We respectfully accept LifeWay’s decision that my new Christmas album didn’t meet their criteria,” Grant wrote. “Let’s all move on from that decision without arguing about it. But let’s not stop asking the questions about what it means to live in faith and reflect love to the world around us.”