Monday, December 31, 2007

My God is bigger than yours

How one Christian newspaper quoted the recent The Economist piece on The battle of the books;

The Bible is translated into 2,426 languages (complete or in part) and counting, including 900 English versions ranging from street slang to comic book-like translations, according to The Economist. On the other hand, the Koran is disadvantaged by the belief by some that the word of God must not be changed, even translation-wise...

Another Bible distribution advantage is the factor of finance. The United States, the world’s richest and more powerful country, is the largest financer of Christian organizations and plays a huge role in marketing the Holy Book.

In the United States, Bible publishing is big business in which annual Bible sales are worth between $425 and $650 million, according to The Economist. Publishing house Thomas Nelson alone made $473 million in 2005. Moreover, secular publishers have also jumped into the rising religious bookselling market. HarperCollins recently bought the Bible publishing house Zondervan.

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