The very last weekly issue of the Australian evangelical publication New Life (29 Jun. 2006) reports that the worldwide distribution of the Bible is trending steeply downwards. I’m sure the expansion of the Internet would have something to do with this, but it contradicts just about every piece of Christian propaganda that I’ve seen. The Bible is always described as ‘the all-time bestseller’ with scads of the things being sold, given away or smuggled into the lands of the heathen. No longer!

United Bible Societies said 372.6 million Bibles, New Testaments, Scripture portions and selections were distributed by Bible Societies in 2005, down 4.6% from 2004. Since 2000 the distribution of printed Scriptures has dwindled steadily by 41.2%.

New Life dropping back to a fortnightly and Bible distribution in free fall. Do I hear Gabriel practising his horn solos?

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