Costco on Bible Controversy: We're Sorry for Labeling It '$14.99 Fiction'
Costco's Bible mislabeling has resulted in an apology from the bulk shopping store. When a California pastor visited the store to pick up a Christmas gift last week Friday, he discovered stickers on all of the Bibles reading "$14.99 Fiction," and called the wholesaler's attention to the error.
The Costco Bible mishap occurred in Simi Valley, Calif. and was discovered by Caleb Kaltenbach, the lead pastor at the non-denominational Discovery Church. Though Costco employees were initially unresponsive to the problem, they've now apologized, but called it a distributor's mistake.
"We deeply regret the mislabeling of the Bible and meant no offense to anyone," Costco wrote in an email statement to customers. "The buyer has let us know that this was an error and the books are being pulled off the shelves to be re-marked."
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"Costco's distributor mislabeled a small percentage of the Bibles, however we take responsibility and should have caught the mistake. We are correcting this with them for future distribution," they clarified to Fox News.
Pastor Kaltenbach said that initially though the labeling was "bizarre," but when he tried to point it out to Costco employees and representatives, no one was available. It took him tweeting a picture of it for the problem to become publicized.
"We are supposed to be living in an era of tolerance, but what Costco did doesn't seem too tolerant," he said, adding that he doubts the Quran would be treated the same way. "If they don't believe in the Bible, that's fine, but at least label it as 'religion' as some bookstores do, or 'inspiration.'"
Kaltenbach admitted that it's far from persecution- "we aren't living in Iraq or Iran"- but that Christians should still vocalize issues like this.
Pastor and author Robert Jeffress agreed.
"Christians need to call out organizations like Costco whose actions undermine Christianity- regardless of whether those actions are accidental or intentional," he told Fox News.
