Turning Point – Warren Throckmorton

Professor Watchlist: Please Pick Me!

Recently, Turning Point, a so-far-to-the-right-you-can’t-see-them-from-here group, created a list of “liberal” (words really have no meaning now) professors who are supposedly a threat to free speech for conservatives on campus. When I looked on the list I found Matthew Boedy, a guest contributor to my blog.
Matthew’s liberal offense? He doesn’t want guns on the campus of the University of North Georgia.

Dr. Matthew Boedy, a professor at University of North Georgia, believes that universities would be more dangerous if they had students legally carrying firearms. Boedy spoke out against a new bill which allows for concealed carry on campus, claiming that he feared he would be shot by disgruntled students if concealed carry was legal at the university.
Source(s): http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7361

Sign me up. I’m not a big fan of concealed carry on campus either. The founding board of Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia didn’t like the idea either.
Matthew, how did you make it and I didn’t!?
I was asked about this by a reporter at Grove City College’s student paper, The Collegian. My thoughts last week.

A “radical agenda?”
Jonathan Zasloff is on the list because he pointed out that the GOP catered to the KKK’s core of angry white men. Well, the KKK and other white supremacist groups endorsed Trump and Trump gave press credentials to white supremacist James Edwards.
To be sure, some are far left (e.g., Mark Tushnet), but some are moderate or even lean right. They just happened to get on Turning Point’s bad side.
I see two major audiences for this nonsense. One is prospective students and their parents. I do think it is important to warn prospective students that even conservative academics reject this stigmatization of free speech and academic freedom. Another group is administrators of conservative colleges who might use this somehow in hiring and firing. Such a use would be a tragedy and I hope academics of all stripes would come together in opposition.

Why Did David Jeremiah's Turning Point Give Up Membership in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability?

When I first heard former Turning Point CFO George Hale’s account of David Jeremiah’s methods of gaining spots on best-seller lists, I checked the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability membership directory to see if David Jeremiah’s ministry, Turning Point, was a member organization. It is not.
I checked because, in 2014, ECFA president Dan Busby took a public stance against the best-seller list manipulation scheme paid for by Mars Hill Church. At the time, he first told Ruth Graham that the scheme was “unethical and deceptive.”
Later, I asked Busby for an expanded statement which he provided and I published at the time. Busby said concerning best-seller manipulation schemes:

It is unethical and deceptive for ECFA-accredited churches (and other organizations) to:
a. make efforts to mask the method of procuring products authored or developed by an organization’s leader in order to improve product ratings, and/or
b. procure products authored or developed by an organization’s leader at a higher price than otherwise available for the sake of improving product ratings, even if there is a valid ministry purpose for paying the higher price.

These two elements appear to be true of former CFO Hale’s description of what Turning Point ministry does to elevate David Jeremiah’s books. According to Hale, Turning Point takes donations for the promise of a book in advance of the publication date. In addition to the book, the donor is often promised resources from Turning Point which are provided at the expense of the non-profit organization. The donations are then used to purchase books at retail cost from a variety of locations around the country in order to maximize the “product ratings.” The books have to be purchased at retail price in order to count in the best-seller list calculations. Jeremiah, as author, is able to purchase those books from the publisher at a tremendous volume discount but such purchases don’t “improve product ratings” nor do they generate royalties.
Busby then pointed to an advisory opinion which remains relevant today.

Product Procurement

Overview. The leaders of many ECFA members author or develop various intellectual properties, including books. Royalties received by these leaders for intellectual properties owned by the ECFA member should be considered as one of the elements of compensation when the organization’s governing body determines compensation for the leaders.
Additionally, the organization’s governing body should ensure that the organization is not involved in unethical and deceptive practices relating to the procurement of products authored or developed by its leaders. The appropriate avenues with which to procure products should be reviewed against the backdrop of ECFA’s Standards 1, 4, and 6.
Standard 1 – Biblical truths and practices. “Every member shall subscribe to a written statement of faith clearly affirming a commitment to the evangelical Christian faith, or shall otherwise demonstrate such commitment and shall operate in accordance with biblical truths and practices.”
In several of his letters, the Apostle Paul stresses the importance of being beyond reproach and behaving in such a way as to avoid even the appearance of wrong-doing. He tells us that we need to be circumspect to those outside the Church. The reason Paul most often gives is that we must not give Satan any opportunity to destroy the reputation of Christ. Arguably, and in an eternal sense, it may be true that the business of ministries and churches is of concern to God and not to others judging from the outside. However, Scripture is also very clear about our need to be open, honest, and above reproach as we wrestle with the issues of life before Christ’s return. As the Apostle Paul said, “For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men” (2 Corinthians 8:21).
Standard 4 – Use of Resources. “Every member shall exercise the appropriate management and controls necessary to provide reasonable assurance that all of the member’s operations are carried out and resources are used in a responsible manner and in conformity with applicable laws and regulations, such conformity taking into account biblical mandates.”
The use of resources in a responsible manner includes managing resources in a God-honoring way. An organization that has expended assets in an unwise manner may diminish its own Christian witness.
Standard 6 – Compensation-Setting and Related-party transactions. “Every organization shall set compensation of its top leader and address related-party transactions in a manner that demonstrates integrity and propriety in conformity with ECFA’s Policy for Excellence in Compensation-Setting and Related-Party Transactions.”
Analysis. In reviewing these Standards and their related commentaries against certain methods in which products may be procured, the ECFA Board, Standards Committee, and Staff found the following:
A potential conflict of interest arises when an organization’s leader decides the organization will promote or purchase books authored by the leader, with the leader receiving royalties on the books. This risk of a conflict-of-interest is heightened when, in relation to products authored or developed by leaders of ECFA members, (a) products are purchased at a higher price than is required and/or (2) there is an effort to mask the method of procuring products in order to improve product rating.
ECFA members must avoid an actual conflict-of-interest by utilizing the related-party transaction process outlined in ECFA’s Policy for Excellence in Related-Party Transactions when purchasing products authored by an organization’s leader.
If an organization pays a higher price than required for procuring products authored or developed by leaders of an ECFA member, there must be a valid ministry purpose for paying the higher price. Otherwise, the excess expenditure of funds is for a non-ministry purpose.
Where an organization attempts to mask the method of procurement from organizations that determine product ratings, ECFA believes such practices are not in accord with biblical truths and practices.
ECFA’s Positions. It is unethical and deceptive for a member organization to:

make efforts to mask the method of procuring products authored or developed by an organization’s leader in order to improve product ratings, and/or
procure products authored or developed by an organization’s leader at a higher price than otherwise available for the sake of improving product ratings, even if there is a valid ministry purpose for paying the higher price.

Given Busby’s stance, it is not surprising that Turning Point is not now accredited; the Turning Point approach as described by former CFO George Hale runs afoul of this advisory opinion. However, I recently learned that David Jeremiah’s ministry was once accredited by ECFA. According to a 2010 ECFA newsletter (page 8), Turning Point voluntarily resigned membership in the ECFA in 2010. Who was involved in that decision from Turning Point? Presumably, the key decision makers were David Jeremiah as CEO and Sealy Yates, Jeremiah’s literary agent, who chairs the Turning Point board.
An anonymous source with knowledge of situation told me that the resignation was allowed by the ECFA after an investigation into Turning Point’s means of elevating Jeremiah’s books to the best-seller lists. Turning Point’s leadership was offered the opportunity to stay in the ECFA if the book promotion schemes ceased. However, according to the source, Jeremiah declined and was allowed to resign without action from the ECFA.
I continue to get silence from Turning Point to all questions regarding the best-seller list promotions. I wrote ECFA to ask for comment about the narrative disclosed by the anonymous source. I received no answer from Dan Busby. If anything in this article is incorrect, I invite Turning Point and/or the EFCA to let me know.
On one hand, I am encouraged that the ECFA would insist on compliance with their standards. However, it is discouraging that the ECFA would not alert donors that Turning Point – an organization that pulls in nearly $40 million/year — is not following these standards. Such a deal does not help donors and raises again the value of the ECFA for donors.

See also Christianity Today’s article on using book buying schemes to game the best seller lists.

Former Chief Financial Officer at Turning Point Claims David Jeremiah Used Questionable Methods to Secure a Spot on Best Seller Lists

George C. Hale once worked for David Jeremiah at Shadow Mountain Community Church and Turning Point Ministry. Hale resigned in 2009 because he had misgivings about the way Jeremiah handled his book marketing and sales. From Hale, I have obtained an open letter to David Jeremiah and Turning Point Ministry. As he discloses in the letter below, Hale has approached David Jeremiah and Jeremiah’s agent, Sealy Yates, about the best-seller methodology. For several weeks, I have periodically reached out to Turning Point and Sealy Yates with no acknowledgement of my contacts. Hale believes that Turning Point employees who speak to the press about the book selling scheme will be fired.
From what has been previously disclosed, there is reason to believe Hale when he discusses the methods Jeremiah has used to attempt to secure a spot on the New York Times best-seller list. In a recent Christianity Today story, a link to an archived webpage belonging to San Diego based ResultSource indicated that Jeremiah was a client of the company for his book Captured by Grace. Captured by Grace did indeed make it onto various best-seller lists. Jeremiah has had at least six books reached the New York Times best seller list since 2007, including the 2014 book Agents of the Apocalypse: A Riveting Look at the Key Players of the End Times.
From my conversations with Hale, it appears that Kevin Small at ResultSource provided tips on how to make the New York Times list. However, it is not clear whether or not Jeremiah formerly used Small’s services for more than Captured by Grace. In contrast to the Mars Hill Church/Mark Driscoll contract, the Turning Point method does not appear to rely on church money to buy books, but rather solicits donations for a book in advance of the publication date. Turning Point’s Paul Joiner was touted by Kevin Small to Mars Hill Church as having special expertise in setting up such websites. ResultSource or a Turning Point team then buys the books at retail price from sources used by the New York Times in the count to form the best seller list. When donations were strong, Turning Point bought more books than necessary to cover the “orders” and gave them away.
According to Hale, the purchases did not benefit Turning Point. Hale believes that the ministry would have benefited by first purchasing the books at a vastly reduced price (which according to Hale, Turning Point did before 2007), and then offering them to listeners for a larger donation. When books are purchased at the author’s discount price, the author does not receive royalties. However, by purchasing the books at retail price, the ministry missed out on the markup but David Jeremiah obtained royalties and obtained a place on the best-seller lists. Hale told me that he doesn’t see how being on the best-seller list benefited the ministry.
Below is the letter from George Hale:

I worked for David Jeremiah for seven years. Five years as the CFO and the COO of Shadow Mountain Ministries and two years as the CFO and acting Chief Development Officer of Turning Point Ministries. David and I had a rocky beginning but ultimately a great working relationship. I tell people that David fired me three times and I quit two times, and that was within the first month. This is not far from the truth. I am a no nonsense business person who believes that confronting issues is positive and productive. I have very little gray area in my life. Things are mostly black or white for me. This comes in part from being a CPA and a successful Bank President during the rough and tumble years of the “80’s and “90’s. Having been a Navy Seal probably adds to my approach to issues and people. David is not comfortable with my manner and he is no doubt right, most of the time. I have learned much from him. One important thing is that people are more important than solving problems.
I began my employment at Turning Point during July 2007. During August of 2007 Turning Point began promoting David Jeremiah’s Book “Captured by Grace” for pre-publication purchase for a donation of $25 or more. I believe that approximately 100,000 books were pre-purchased (I could be wrong on this number but I think it is close) for an average donation of $25 during the months of August and September 2007. When the book was released in October, Turning Point used the money donated for the book to purchase copies of the book from retail booksellers such as Amazon and Borders. Turning Point then sent the book to those who had donated and requested the book. These purchases where timed to get the book listed as a “best-seller.” It worked.
After this occurred I voiced my concern as to the ethics of such action to David Jeremiah. I was also concerned because Turning Point could have purchased the same books directly from the publisher for approximately $10 each instead of the $25 each paid to the book retailers. David assured me that his agent and attorney, Sealy Yates had opined that the transactions were honest and ethical.
This same action was repeated during August, September and October 2008 with the same results. I again requested that Turning Point not repeat such transactions as I could not discern any benefit to Turning Point for purchasing the books at retail verses purchasing the books wholesale from the publisher. I thought the transaction to be unethical. David told me that he would take my advice under consideration.
During August 2009 David Jeremiah said that he wanted to promote his new book for pre-publication purchase but for a donation of any amount. He had not yet made a decision as to the method that Turning Point would use to purchase the books to be sent to those who would request them.
During September 2009 David Jeremiah told me that he had decided to use the money received by Turning Point from those requesting his book to purchase the books at retail from booksellers and not purchase the books from the publisher at a lower amount. He acknowledged that he was aware that this was disappointing to me.
Turning Point had received an average donation of $35 per book instead of $25 dollars during this 2009 campaign. Therefore, if my memory is correct, Turning Point had received approximately $3.5 million dollars for the approximately 100,000 books pre-sold. I thought that the added donation over and above the $25 purchase price of the book was meant to benefit Turning Point and was not to be used to purchase additional books at retail. This did not happen. This thought, together with my prior opinion that the entire method was unethical and did not benefit Turning Point, led me to immediately resign my position with Turning Point which I did September 15, 2009.
I have only spoken about these events in a very limited way since that date. Primarily talking with David Jeremiah and Sealy Yates to encourage them to cease such activity which they tell me has continued since I left Turning Point. They do not agree with my position and have stated that they see nothing unethical, immoral or illegal about how Turning Point promotes David’s books and gets them identified as “best-selling” books by the various listing agents such as the New York Times. We have agreed to disagree on this topic and have otherwise remained friends.
Let me add that I very much admire David Jeremiah and believe him to be one of the best Bible teachers in the world today. I helped craft the vision for Turning Point of delivering “the unchanging Word to an ever-changing world”. I believe and support this vision. I believe that David is blessed and chosen by God for this purpose.
That said, when Mark Driscoll was exposed in early 2014 for attempting in a small way to do what David had successfully done for the past seven years and it was also exposed that Sealy, ResultSource and possibly others associated with David Jeremiah may have assisted Mark Driscoll, I became very concerned that this cancer was spreading. I thought that it may have gained acceptability in part based upon the success of David Jeremiah.
When David Jeremiah spoke openly with World Magazine during June 2014 about his method of promoting his books I felt that he had placed this subject into the public domain for discussion.
The final events which led to my now talking were when LifeWay removed Mark Driscoll’s books from its book stores while prominently promoting David Jeremiah as a “best-selling” author, and when Mars Hills Church failed partly because of this book publication deceptive practice. I feel that now is the time for the public to voice its opinion. Is this practice OK as Sealy Yates and David Jeremiah proclaim or is it deceptive and unethical as I believe?;
I have taken my stand.
What do you believe?
In His service,
George Hale

I have placed links in Hale’s letter where important to help readers get more information. In this scenario, it appears that some deception could be involved if donations in amounts higher than the retail price of a single book are used to buy other books as if they were the subject of an individual purchase. More importantly, the ministry’s resources and staff serve to promote the book and run the fulfillment of the sales at ministry expense. By paying retail price, the book royalties go to the author and the sales count toward the best-seller lists.
As noted, I have contacted Turning Point numerous times and await their comment about Hale’s claims.

Daily Beast: Evangelicals Scam the NYT Bestseller List

This morning, the Daily Beast published my article summarizing recent material I have obtained.
There is still more to develop on this story. For instance, it appears that the web of relationships involving Sealy Yates, Kevin Small, David Jeremiah and the Parrotts is longstanding. I hope to develop that part of the story more this coming week. As I pointed out in the post earlier this afternoon, Driscoll was a late comer to the party and an outsider to the club. Small is on the board of the Parrotts’ non-profit and Yates is on the board of Jeremiah’s Turning Point. Jeremiah credited Small’s publishing genius as far back as 2006.
It is hard to say if these folks will open up and reveal how all of this works.
Whether or not they do may depend on how much more media scrutiny develops. Christianity Today had a small blurb Friday linking to my blog posts. I think other stories are coming.
What I would like to see is a straightforward explanation from the agents, consultants, authors and publishers about the way they work the New York Times system. In the case of Driscoll’s contract, deception was involved. Has that occurred for the other authors? It appears that way but perhaps the agents, consultants, authors and publishers do not believe they are being deceptive. I would like to hear their side of it. Thus far, outside of a promise of a reply that didn’t come from Tyndale House, there have been no replies from those who have engaged in the best-seller campaigns.
When Mark Driscoll used this approach, his critics and the media were all over the story. Where are they now?
Yates and Yates have a significant cadre of authors they represent. Do all of them use ResultSource? I asked two of them but received no answer.
More broadly, I think the NYT Bestseller brand is tarnished by the actions of ResultSource. I asked the NYTs if they planned any kind of correction for those books proven to benefit from gaming the system, and the paper declined to comment.
On WORD-FM (Pittsburgh) last week, I was interviewed by Kathy Emmons. Her suggestion to the NYTs was to permanently ban any author caught cheating.
Clearly, this is a problem larger than evangelical authors but it appears that it would take evangelicals to change course given that some on the inside of this are within the camp.