SBC's LifeWay will Sue the Pants Off Ex-President Thom Rainer After All

In the shortest cease-fire ever, LifeWay has uncrossed their fingers from behind their back and has re-upped their lawsuit against Thom Rainer after a brief detente, choosing to proceed with it rather than seeking alternative methods of arbitration. We brought you the details of this case in our Theologically Bankrupt LifeWay Halts Legal Action Against Morally Bankrupt Thom Rainer article, where we wrote:

The world’s worst organization, LifeWay Christian Resources, has taken a step back from the brink and has put a hold on its breach of contract lawsuit against the winner of the 2018 Worst Christian award, former president Thom Rainer.
LifeWay was suing Rainer for violating his non-compete clause by heading out to enjoy a multi-book, multiyear agreement with rival Tyndale Publishing House while still serving as chief advisory officer for LifeWay. The suit claims this action violated their severance deal, as it would have allegedly given Tyndale a competitive advantage.

Apparently cooler heads turned to steam after all, with Thom Rainer’s son announcing that LifeWay is not a believer in “No take-backsies” and will bring the full wrath of the arm of the law against the embattled ex-president.

The post by Sam Rainer links to a change.org petition, which has garnered about 500 digital signatures at the time of writing and explains:

“LifeWay CEO Ben Mandrell and the trustee officers decided to sue former CEO Thom Rainer without the knowledge of consent of the Board of Trustees. The immediate past trustee chairman, Dr. Jimmy Scroggins, has asked the board to withdraw the suit, but trustees have been denied the chance to meet thus far.
Tell the LifeWay trustees to seek a Biblical Solution for Life.
Tell them to WITHDRAW their lawsuit against Thom Rainer and seek resolution of the dispute OUT of court.”

The real travesty of course is that Rainer wasn’t fired and sued by the Southern Baptist Convention for his long-lived reign of theological terror, where he presided over and organization that packaged and sold a deluge of inspiringly awful material; a cornucopia of heretical trash that has run roughshod over the souls of many who turned to their offerings for guidance, wisdom, and sound biblical teaching. Page after page of theological “filthy rags” was produced and pushed under Rainer’s watch, and he made a mint doing it.

One particularly noteworthy act of scumbaggery was with the pushing of “heavenly tourism” books. Rainer was warned in emails that Alex Malarkey was recanting his book, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, but he mocked the messenger and dismissed his concerns and continued to sell the book. When Malarkey’s Open Letter to Lifeway (originally posted on this very news site) made international news, Thom Rainer’s spokesperson at Lifeway lied and said he just heard about the book being fraudulent, and immediately pulled it down. When we released the emails showing Rainer knew much sooner and didn’t care, choosing to profit from the book anyway, Rainer simply said, “No comment.”

We will update details on this slap-fest accordingly.