Thom Rainer Caves To LifeWay Legal Pressure, Will Honor Non-Compete Contract
The peddler of theological poison known as LifeWay Christian Resources, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention and publisher of all things Beth Moore, announced late Tuesday that they’ve reached an amicable agreement with former President Thom Rainer, one that was settled out of court and will end all legal proceedings.
You’ll recall that we leaked emails a few days ago from LifeWay’s board revealing these four salient points, in the process serving as a bit of a reputation wrecker in the eyes of the commonfolk SBC peasants, unaware that their favored son was acting quite poorly.
1. Dr. Rainer entered into a very lucrative transition agreement that was not disclosed to the board’s compensation and executive committees that would pay him in excess of $1 million.
2. Since his retirement on Feb. 28, 2019, Dr. Rainer has been paid in excess of $1 million plus benefits, not including royalty payments.
3. The transition agreement carried a non-compete clause.
4. Dr. Rainer has clearly violated the non-compete clause by entering into a partnership agreement with a competitor explicitly against his transition agreement.
Now that LifeWay has lifted up Rainer by the scruff of his neck, yelled at him for peeing the proverbial bed, and smacked him on the nose so that he won’t do it again, Rainer acquiesced to the organization’s demands and will honor the terms of his non-compete contract after all, meaning that he can’t move ahead with all those books planned for Tyndale until November 2021, 14 months away.
Rainer also must immediately discontinue any references to Tyndale and the promoting of certain company-owned products according to RNS who have seen a draft, writing:
Under the terms of the agreement, a draft of which was provided to Religion News Service, Rainer must also ‘cease using any and all tags such as @Tyndale, #Tyndale @NLT, #NLT or any other reference to any competitor of Plaintiff, Tyndale,’ on social media. (NLT is the New Living Translation, a Tyndale Bible.)
Rainer has also started returning a portion of the $1,000,000 severance packaged he received, though it’s not clear how much he will or has actually given back . In a statement, Todd Fanning, chairman of LifeWay’s board of trustees said:
Our prayer has always been that this could be resolved between LifeWay and Dr. Rainer amicably. We’re thankful Dr. Rainer agreed to honor his word and commitment to LifeWay, which has been our goal from the beginning. The trustees and Dr. Rainer are looking forward to putting this behind us.
About Author
Another Good Ole Boy w a Golden Parachute
The SBC needs to have all of its leaders changed. Step up, trustees, and pick men of God to lead. In other words, quit selecting men the way you previously selected men: polished, PhD, and friends with the world.
How about making the time spent in daily private prayer a major factor when making your consideration? And whether or not they’ve been kicked out or disinvited to a place because of their strong stand for the exclusivity of Christ and His Word?