Friday, April 08, 2005

IVP Statement on Judy Brown

InterVarsity Press

April 8, 2005

InterVarsity Press learned on April 7, 2005, that Dr. Judy L. Brown, the contributor of an article to one of its books, was sentenced to prison on March 26, 2004, for malicious wounding and burglary with intent to commit murder. Dr. Brown had contributed one of twenty-nine chapters to the book Discovering Biblical Equality.

Today IVP decided to cease distribution of the book effective immediately. It intends to publish a new edition of the book without Dr. Brown’s article in the next few months.

IVP Publisher Robert Fryling said, “This is a tragic situation for Dr. Brown, her victim and the many people associated with them. Although God does forgive and even use the writings of confessed murderers and adulterers like King David, the Bible also has clear moral guidelines for Christians who shepherd others. Because this includes authors of Christian books and because we take this seriously at IVP, we made the decision to stop publication.”

Background information on the case may be found at http://www.mainstreetnewspapers.com/articles/2004/02/05/salem/news/news03.txt and http://www.mainstreetnewspapers.com/articles/2004/04/05/salem/news/news01.txt