WHO, I wonder, remembers Anita Bryant, the American singer who embarked on a Save our Children campaign in the 70s?
Southern Baptist Bryant shot to international prominence as a result of her opposition to gay rights in Florida and later elsewhere – and in 1977 was rewarded for her efforts with a very public pie in the face; TV cameras recorded the incident.
A surprise facial: Bryant gets pied for her homophobic campaigning
Among Bryant’s infamous quotes was:
As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children … If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St Bernards and to nail biters.
I was reminded of Bryant, now 69, when I learned this morning that the US magazine – Today’s Christian Woman which launched in 1978 with a picture of Bryant on the cover – is to cease publication.
According to Newsweek, the TCW was launched:
To reach evangelical Christian women who wanted a publication that reflected their values. They didn’t want the crass sex talk of Cosmopolitan. They didn’t want the mainstream relationship advice of Redbook. They wanted inspirational stories of faith and Bible-based help in managing their children, friendships and marriages.
TCW’s parent company, Christianity Today International (CTI), announced that the magazine’s September/October issue would be its last.
Newsweek observes that the death of TCW:
Shows that Christian magazine publishing is in the toilet along with almost every other kind of print publishing.
In its announcing TCW’s demise, CTI also revealed that Ignite Your Faith – formerly the historic Campus Life – would close, and that 22 percent of the CTI staff would be laid off. (Christianity Today, CTI’s flagship publication, founded by Billy Graham in 1956, will remain in business.)
Other Christian magazines – Discipleship Journal, Pray and CCM, the Christian community’s version of Rolling Stone – have also been shuttered in the past 18 months. New Man and SpiritLed Woman, published by the Charisma group, have abandoned print and are now available only online.
Said Harold Smith, CTI’s CEO and editor in chief:
The perfect publishing storm that’s hitting everyone is hitting us. It has hammered us.
HAT TIP: Paul Duveen
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
June 8th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
I suppose thirty odd years for a magazine isn't really a bad run but we should be encouraged if Christian magazines generally are getting the worst of it. We should mention that the Freethinker will be celebrating one hundred and thirty years in a couple of years time.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
The LGBT community remembers Anita Bryant well. I know some of the hardcore RRRWers still consider her an icon. Otherwise she's largely forgotten, as she should be.
As to Christian publishing, it's likely dying off because it's becoming as irrelevant as Christianity. Humanity is ever evolving, and the notion that it must continue to adhere to Bronze-age mythology is only appealing to a tiny subset of people.
June 9th, 2009 at 1:06 am
Interesting though I would not place much significance on it
Even in the best of time, new magazines replace older ones, and now as venerable newspapers and magazines are folding this says little of significance about the relevance of religion
June 9th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
"If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St Bernards and to nail biters."
Why shouldn't prostitutes have rights, they are among the most vulnerable and abused people in society. Rather than deny them rights they should be afforded every protection society can offer.
And what has she got against Bernie Winters eh!
And nail biters! I was going to ask what planet this muppet was living on, but the answer is obvious.
Ours. Unfortunately.