LifeWay Stores Will Not Sell Amy Grant’s New Christmas Album

LifeWay Christian Resources will not sell Amy Grant’s new Christian CD this year because it’s not “Christian enough,” her manager says.

Amy Grant’s Manager Jennifer Cooke wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Post that she thinks the stores will not be selling “Tennessee Christmas” because it’s not Christian enough.

"'Is it Christian enough for Christian retail to support?' LifeWay Christian Resources, the large Southern Baptist retailer, decided it was not. It’s their choice, and it’s okay," said Cooke, in the column posted Tuesday.

LifeWay hasn’t commented on its reasons for not selling the album.

We don’t discuss why we make product decisions," said Marty King, LifeWay spokesman. "We’re presented every week with thousands of new products that we can carry. There are hundreds of thousands of products that we could carry online or in our stores. We’re only able to carry a few thousand."

The album released Oct. 21 and is Grant’s first Christmas CD is nearly 20 years. It includes two Christmas hymns: “Joy to the World” and “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”

Terry Mattingly, of GetReligon.org, writes that Grant’s new album also possibly “lacked the proper JPM ratio (that’s ‘Jesus Per Minute,’ in Nashville lingo) in the eyes of some Southern Baptist executives.”

“’Christian’ music must at least include words that are overtly religious. This camp is especially critical of crossover artists, such as Grant, who often express their religious views in more subtle lyrics,” he writes.

LifeWay’s competitor, Family Christian Stores, is selling “Tennessee Christmas.”

Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Publication date: November 4, 2016