Newspaper Raises Questions About Thomas Nelson's Financial Practices

Nashville paper tries to connect the dots over Christian publisher Thomas Nelson “Several weeks ago, shortly before Thomas Nelson Inc. disclosed that Chief Executive Sam Moore reimbursed the company $139,000 for personal expenses and services from employees, its top regulatory compliance officer was quietly put on paid administrative leave,” reports The Tennessean. “Now, questions have emerged whether the two actions are in some way connected.”

The Nashville paper reports that the officer on leave, Eric Hayden, “privately told friends they are” connected. “He has said certain actions by Moore placed him in a position that would compromise his responsibilities to ensure that the company was complying with federal regulatory and securities rules.”

But Moore says Hayden was put on leave to cut costs. (Hayden, however, continues to draw paychecks—he’s just not working. Moore wouldn’t tell the paper why he’d keep paying a nonworking employee if he’s on leave to cut costs.)

So far, no details are available over Moore’s $139,000 reimbursement, which came out in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All Joe Powers, Thomas Nelson’s CFO, would tell the paper is that they “made the disclosure that’s required.”

“It’s not known if Moore’s reimbursement and Heyden’s status will come up this Thursday at Nelson’s annual meeting,” reports The Tennessean. Do any Thomas Nelson shareholders plan to bring it up? E-mail Weblog here.

Thomas Nelson hasn’t yet responded to the article, but if they do it’s likely to appear either at its website’s corporate news page or in The Tennessean’s letters to the editor area.

Girls reconcile with their lesbian mom Kimla Green’s two teenage daughters, La Kenna and Shanicola, ran away from home July 4 and have been living with an aunt and uncle ever since (video). The girls, both Christians, sued for permanent separation, saying they can’t condone their mother’s very active homosexual lifestyle.

“She has tried to make this a case of gay-bashing against Christianity,” the girls’ attorney, David Sloan, told members of the media earlier this week. “But this is about an irresponsible mother and her behavior. She would hold birthday parties for the girls and invite her lovers over—that’s the kind of bizarre behavior I’m talking about.”

Kimla said her daughters were being “brainwashed” by their church, the Body of Christ Ministry in Houston. “I am not an unfit mother. I stopped going to the church, but I never stopped them going. … I am a lesbian, and it is against the Word of God, but I’ve talked to my kids about it.”

In court yesterday (video), the family reconciled. “My agreement is not to show any type of homosexual lifestyle in front of my kids or to do anything that makes them feel uncomfortable concerning the gay lifestyle,” said Kimla. The daughters agreed to stop attending Body of Christ.

Kimla Green says she already “No longer practices that lifestyle.” “I’m praying about the situation,” she said. “It would take God to cleanse me” (more video here).

UNC Koran debate:

Assigned reading on Qur’an in Chapel Hill raises hackles | A federal appeals court refused on Monday to halt a program to expose new students at the University of North Carolina to information about the Qur’an (The New York Times)
UNC students discuss Koran book | University of North Carolina students discuss Qur’an book after court rejects injunction (Associated Press)
Qur’an discussions proceed | An appeals court allows sessions at UNC-CH on a book about the Muslim holy work, and ready freshmen take up task (The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.)
Assignment of book on Islam prompts university debate (Voice of America)

Islam:

U.S. Muslims say Bush ignores them | They complain that Bush is being swayed by conservative Christians and pro-Israel lobbyists (Fox News)
Are we owed an apology? | Muslim leaders remain mute on 9/11. (William F. Buckley Jr., National Review Online)
Does Islam foster extremism? | Perhaps every belief system that lays claim to the ultimate truth carries the seeds of violent fanaticism and intolerance (Cathy Young, The Boston Globe)
Divinity dean weighs in on Islam | Harvard University this week named the first Islamicist — and the first layman — to head its venerable divinity school (The Boston Globe)

Missions and Ministry:

Graham crusade’s return fires revival of the faithful | Spokane is one of only five cities where Franklin Graham will bring his festival this year (The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.)
Christian event expected to draw up to 100,000 | For the most part, it looked like any other summer festival in this area: food booths selling yakisoba or bratwurst, groups of families and friends sprawled on vast expanses of grass, listening to bands play on the open stage. But there were subtle differences at the Puget Sound Festival with Luis Palau (The Seattle Times)
God books a vacation | From campground to ski slope, people at play find someone else along for the trip — missionaries who minister to tourists (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Minister reprises ‘under God’ sermon | Pledge of Allegiance flap brings 91-year-old pastor back. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Spiritualized | As the month began, thousands came to Loon Mountain for the region’s biggest Christian music festival (The Boston Globe)
Evangelical ‘miracle’ | It had been said that getting more than 100 Latino ministers, of various denominations and nationalities, to work together was practically impossible. But when they finally achieved it, they could hardly believe their own eyes. (Miguel Perez, The Record, Bergen, N.J.)
Religion radio puts shut-ins, elderly on same wavelength | Many elderly maintain their link to their churches and their spiritual lives by listening to radio broadcasts piped from their churches live or on tape (The Flint [Mich.] Journal)
English provides the link | Lutheran pastor returns from five-week stay in China (The Saginaw [Mich.] News)

Persecution in Eastern Europe:

War of the faiths | An increasingly bitter conflict between Roman Catholics and the Orthodox Church highlights the struggle for real religious freedom in the former Soviet Union (Newsweek International)
Attacks on minority faiths rise in post-Soviet Georgia | Georgia has experienced a wave of religious violence that is increasingly calling into question the country’s willingness to protect democracy and human rights (The New York Times)

Pope John Paul II in Poland:

Pope says modern mankind is usurping ‘God’s place’ | Pope John Paul II told a crowd of at least two million Poles on Sunday that mankind was going astray by letting cultural liberalism eclipse God’s will (The New York Times)
Pope offers mass near site where he toiled under the Nazis (The New York Times)
For pontiff, a day of emotion (The Boston Globe)
Past and present meet on Pope’s Polish visit | Pontiff seeks an end to ‘every injustice’ (The Washington Post)
Pope warns poles against euthanasia | Modern man often “lives as if God does not exist,” the pope warned, “and even puts himself in God’s place” (Associated Press)
Pope bids farewell to Krakow, mentions his death | Singing traditional song, he says he hopes to return (Reuters)
Poles fear Pope is saying goodbye | 2 million worshipers turn out for tearful mass in Krakow (The Washington Post)
Poland pulls further from Pope’s values | A new demographic survey commissioned by the government portrays a Poland that has shed the religiosity and social conservatism of the communist era and transformed itself into a society that behaves very much like its more affluent Western European neighbors (Chicago Tribune)