Credit where credit is due.
The first of the month, questions were raised at this blog about the Asian stereo-types and misuse of characters being used in marketing a book called  Deadly Viper: A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life and Leadership,, which had morphed into an online community and material for church study groups.
The issue was picked up by various Asian American Christians, including Eugene Cho and theology professor Soong-Chan Rah.
After some back and forth by the authors and bloggers the book website was taken down and a striking apology has been issued by Zondervan. The book publisher’s decision is being met with surprise, gratitude and high praise on blogs around the US, and an open letter of gratitude posted at  Soong-Chan Rah’s blog.
This is the Zondervan letter in full.
Zondervan Statement Regarding Concerns Voiced About “Deadly Viper: Character Assassinsâ€
From Moe Girkins, President and CEO
Hello and thanks for your patience.
On behalf of Zondervan, I apologize for publishing Deadly Viper: Character Assassins. It is our mission to offer products that glorify Jesus Christ. This book’s characterizations and visual representations are offensive to many people despite its otherwise solid message.
There is no need for debate on this subject. We are pulling the book and the curriculum in their current forms from stores permanently.
We have taken the criticism and advice we have received to heart. In order to avoid similar episodes in the future, last week I named Stan Gundry as our Editor-in-Chief of all Zondervan products. He will be responsible for making the necessary changes at Zondervan to prevent editorial mistakes like this going forward. We already have begun a dialogue with Christian colleagues in the Asian-American community to deepen our cultural awareness and sensitivity.
Zondervan is committed to publishing Christian content and resources that uplift God and see humanity in its proper perspective in relation to God. We take seriously our call to provide resources that encourage spiritual growth. And, we know there is more to learn by always listening to our critics as well as our advocates.
It would be unfair to take these actions without expressing our love and support for the authors of this book, Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite. Both gentlemen are gifted writers and passionate about their ministry. We do believe their message is valuable and plan to work with the authors to come up with a better presentation of that message. We will jointly ensure we do our due diligence on the appropriateness of the creative side. This will include reaching out to a broad spectrum of cultural experts.
Finally, I want to personally thank Professor Rah, Ken Fong, Eugene Cho and Kathy Khang for their input and prayers during this discussion. We appreciate everyone’s concern and effort and look forward to working together for God’s kingdom.
Warmly,
Moe
Christianity Today has the story, I went over to the Zondervan site and looked at what’s online about the book, as well as took a look at the videos at the authors Facebook page.
Deadly Vipers is a book about character and for the people of 2nd chances.
Good for the company and good on authors Mike Foster and Judd Wilhite for practising what they preach.
From the thank you letter from representatives of the US Asian Christian community:
Thank you for being willing to hear the voices of all those, Asian American and others, who expressed their concerns. We know that it could not have been easy at times to weather the criticisms. Nonetheless, your willingness to understand the issues, to take responsibility for the errors, and to act so swiftly and decisively in order to rectify the situation gives us great hope for the future, hope that the body of Christ can indeed demonstrate the power of reconciliation and be a witness to the world in how we resolve our differences.
We are also heartened to see the changes that have already taken place at the corporate level within Zondervan to reduce the chance that a similar controversy will occur in the future. We know that Stan Gundry has been working hard behind the scenes to bring resolution to this situation, and we want to offer him whatever assistance we can to help him in his new role. Please do not hesitate to call on us if we can support Zondervan’s efforts in deepening its cultural sensitivity and awareness.
To Mike and Jud, we can only imagine the personal toll this situation has taken on you. We have heard from numerous people who deeply admire your work and who attest to the impact that your ministry has in the church today, and we hope and trust that God will continue to bless your work, especially given the integrity you have shown in this matter. As you seek to begin the task of recasting your message in new ways, please let us know if we can help you in that process. We know there is much to preserve in the hard work you have done to this point in creating the content and community for Deadly Vipers, and we want to see your excellent ideas and your growing following converge in similar vehicles as before (book, website, blog, etc.), or more. Our hope and sincere prayer for you both is that this controversy and its resolution will in no way diminish your work and ministry, but broaden and deepen it.
I have been keeping up with this story, and I would disagree that blogs across the US are praising this move. An awful lot of people are really quite upset and some even quite sad. Not only has the book been pulled, but the website as well, where often topics that were covered were controversial but much needed. Topics around pornography and the struggle both men and women have, and other integrity issues. People engaged and were changed, which is why the book and other teaching material did so well. It feels like Zondervan threw the baby out with the bath water.
In the Evangelical world in the US, not many books cover the topics of integrity. Topics like church leadership, money, worship, those are the hot button topics that often sell books. I thought it was wonderful to see a book on integrity do so well. I have many Asians friends that just don’t understand why other Asians couldn’t see the message behind the analogies. Not everyone in the Asian community was upset.
I read a rather famous blog where a commenter challenged the writer with the question “Will you be Asian in heaven?” subsequently starting a conversation regarding whether as Christians we should be attached to our earthly citizenship, whatever our race, or see the benefit in holding our “heavenly” citizenship as trumping whatever color or ethnicity we are. Everyone seems to agree the content of the book and website were so good, yet could no one see the kingdom and eternal good keeping the book and the website would have had?
I appreciated the writers for graciously doing what they could to comply with the complaints, but after knowing the book, the website, and lives that have been changed by the transparency and authenticity the “Deadly Viper” community provided, I am sad that others couldn’t see the loss to the Kingdom.
Thanks E:
I headed to Asian Americian blogs.:^)
The authors and publishers can re-work their content, which as I understand it is something they plan to do.
We aren’t in heaven yet, and while I don’t believe for a moment the authors meant to be ethnically irresponsible, the serious topics they address don’t need to be cheapened by being dishonourable.
So I applaud Zondervan, it’s a win for them. There are 13.5 million Asian Americans in the US. That’s a lot of purchase power.
Personally, I would love to be a fly on the wall in the Zondervan board room. I’m sure it’s been an interesting year, and this particular incident, while it involves the rather extreme pulling of a title from the market, is not the only item on their agenda right now.
The great thing about Zondervan has been their willingness to pass the torch to the next generation, and use their platform to allow young writers like Rob Bell, Anne Jackson, Shane Hipps, Jon Acuff, etc., to be heard.
The downside of course, is that these are relatively inexperienced people, especially when stacked up against status quo Christian authors.
I applaud their willingness to allow younger voices to be heard. I hope their new “appointment” doesn’t cause some new voices not to be heard or to be watered down. But they have to proceed cautiously or they will cheapen a very respected brand name.
Such is the risk when Christian publishers are tripping all over themselves trying to sign ‘the next big thing in Christian publishing’ to a multi-book contract.
This is the second time this has happened with Zondervan, they published a book in 2006 using Asian sterotypes that they also pulled.
Live and learn. They corrected their mistake in 2006 also.
It takes maturity for a company to say we made a mistake, we’ll correct it.
And it won’t be the last, either.
I devoted my blog post today to a partial listing of the hailstorms and challenges the company has faced in the last 90 days.
I am glad to hear that Zondervan pulled Jud’s “Deadly Viper” book. I have attended Central Christian Church in Las Vegas (Jud Wilhite’s church) on numerous occassions over the past 4 years. I have found that Church also makes fun of other ethnic groups, the Latinos and Italians, in their videos. During one of the Christmas videos (before Deadly Viper came out), they even portrayed Italians tieing up one of their family members, duck taping his mouth, and throwing him the truck of a car. They were portraying them as mafia. I tried to address the issue with the powers that be at Central. All I got was a backlashing from them, or a “go away” attitude from them (possibly because I am a woman). All they did was started laughing, I don’t think God is laughing!
During the services, Jud tries to sell Christianity as a product instead of a deep personal relationship with God, our creator.
They play secular music at Central which in no way worships God. They are worshipping themselves for being able to play the songs (such as I Want To Hold Your Hand, Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, and Don’t Stop Believing – trying to reinact the TV show “Glee”). I truly believe that those songs do not belong in a church. They are just showing that Central is part of this world and not part of God’s Kingdom. It is very rarely that you hear Jesus’ name mentioned during the service.
Needless to say, I no longer associate myself with Central. After attending there, it’s hard to believe that there is a God who loves and cares for you.