BOOKSTORES PULL TENNEY BOOKS

LifeWay, the Southern Baptist Convention owned bookstore chain, will no longer sell Tommy Tenney's The God Chasers or The God Catchers. The bookstore chain offered no official statement about the decision to drop the best selling books, but Charisma magazine reported obtaining "a copy of a message sent by a LifeWay store manager to a customer who asked about the removal of The God Chasers." The manager's statement specified Tenney's "unbiblical theology," including the author's disparaging of Scripture and an emphasis on subjective experience.

Tenney alleges that "a misinterpretation of his beliefs" is the cause for the bookstores removing his publications. In two major articles appearing in this newsletter, PFO detailed Tenney's unbiblical theology noted in the LifeWay manager's observation, in addition to a bent toward pantheism.

Tenney's roots in the United Pentecostal Church has also cost him book sales within the Assemblies of God. The Radiant Book and Music Store in Springfield, Mo., has also pulled Tenney's works from its shelves. The store maintained that the books are not in doctrinal harmony with the Assemblies denomination. However, not all bookstores with AG ties have followed the lead of the Springfield store.

Tenney says he withdrew direct association with the UPC during the 1980s and claims to no longer hold the group's "views." His father still is a UPC superintendent. Tenney was quoted by Charisma as telling AG General Superintendent Thomas Trask, "I can't turn my back on my heritage," and that he has "friends on both sides, and I'm sticking with my friends."

-- MKG

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