I can’t make this stuff up, folks. Just read this from my inbox. Maybe you saw it too.
INDUSTRY NEWS [From Christian Retailing]
“Tomorrow, 06-06-06, marks release of ‘The Rapture’
In one of the year’s biggest marketing tactics, tomorrow, June 6—or 06-06-06—a slew of products both Christian and secular will release. [Among them,] Tyndale House Publishers will release the third and final prequel to its best-selling “Left Behind” series, The Rapture, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.
LaHaye and Jenkins also have partnered with a Christian bookstore to sell the “Left Behind” books’ softcover versions for $6.66.”
“[Oh, and by the way, in case you’re from Mars and don’t know] The number 666 is considered by some as the Mark of the Beast in the Book of Revelation.”
Now does that strike anyone else as just a wee bit flagrant? I’m not going to call for a boycott, or even anything more than this blog equivalent of an exasperated sigh at the marketing monkeys who put this one together–and not just because I’m jealous I didn’t have any part in it. No really. I’m completely disgusted and demand to know how many Satanists at Tyndale are jumping up and down for joy at this.
In other news, belated congrats to industry indie Howard Publishing and Denise Hunter for the ForeWord gold award for excellence in fiction to Saving Grace.
So, not all bad news on Devil’s Day.
So, um, was that announcement a joke? Because I thought Christians were supposed to avoid the whole 666 thing, not encorporate it into their marketing sche . . . OH MY GOODNESS! The beast provides that no one can buy or sell unless . . . I get it now! Best-selling series. Mark of the beast. This explains a lot.
I think the really bad news (found in the same article) was that there will be another (yes, another) LB book due next year!
Maybe they should wait until July 7th to release it.
This just in from Religion Bookline today: Cheryl Kerwin, Left Behind marketing manager at Tyndale, said a lot of people were asking, “‘Why did you choose 666 [to release the book]? Do you know what that means?’ Yeah, we do.” But, she said, the Bible states that no one knows the day or the hour of the rapture, when Christians are to be taken into heaven bodily before the second coming of Christ, “so we’re just having a little fun.”
Wha’? Did I somehow miss the biblical connection between the date of Christ’s return and the number of the beast?
Not that I mind their “having a little fun,” especially when it lets me have a little fun mocking their little fun. But I have a feeling the fun will fizzle when superstitious types (aka, people who lap up LB as gospel) freak out over the sixes thing and refuse to buy it. This bit of fun could come back to bite them in their left behinds.
Exactly, JD. And as we know, the superstitious always bite off more than they can chew…
Something tells me their behinds will be fine, though.
. . . . Oh good grief. My Behind hurts to think of it.
Well, some buyers looking to get into the spirit of the fun may bite and get the hell scared out of them, and not be left behind. :)