In this second of a three part interview, I got to ask Jim about his experience with his publisher and what went wrong.

[question]What happened with Zondervan? They decided to cancel your 2-book contract, why?[/question]

[answer]The book was intended to be a 1-year social experiment where I tested the idea that authentic Christianity is not Jesus <strong><em>AND</em></strong> Jim but Jesus <strong><em>AS</em></strong> Jim, believing that there was nothing separating me and Jesus, and that I was free to live as he did in every way. On August 25, 2008 when I signed that 2-book deal with Zondervan Publishers I had no idea that 1 year would stretch into 3, and would include the death of my mother, two near-death experiences, and a deeper deconstruction of my faith and my entire identity as Jim Palmer. Nor did I expect I would become the center of a firestorm of controversy when I turned my manuscript into Zondervan in April. My manuscript was rejected on the grounds that it did not “lie within the bounds of biblical, orthodox Christianity.” My 2-book contract was promptly canceled.[/answer]

[question]What was your response?[/question]

[answer]Zondervan’s publishing mission reads, “To be the leader in Christian communications meeting the needs of people with resources that glorify Jesus Christ and promote biblical principles.” I wish that somehow this mission could include telling every human being that they are born into this world with inherent and equal eternal worth, and every bit a “Son of God” as Jesus of Nazareth was.[/answer]

[question]Did you agree with their reasons?[/question]

&nbsp;

[answer]

While earning my Masters of Divinity degree and during my years of being a pastor, I uncovered plenty of biblical support for this idea, much more than I could ever mention here. Jesus himself, in John 17, says we share the “same glory” given him by God and that this is the basis for all humanity to be “one” with God. I was told in my religious training that it was sacrilege to view myself on equal footing with Jesus. But even he said, “We would do greater things than he did.”

But this message was lost as the Christian religion gave way to institutionalized clerical power and politics. There are countless stories of divine nobodies who lived their faith outside the walls of “official” Christendom. They were demonized and left out of history books and schools of divinity. These free believers were often condemned and killed...as heretics.

The past several years my journey and writing have been about shedding corporate Christianity with its “us versus them” mentality, and reclaiming the real meaning of Christ’s divine inclusivity.

[/answer]

[question]That's a fairly radical message.[/question]

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

[answer]

For Jesus of Nazareth, life was his religion, love was his doctrine, and humankind was his church. Jesus affirmed the inherent and divine dignity of all people, and was devoted to human solidarity, compassion and community. That’s why we need the Darlas, Makihas, Brunos and Jims – every one of us “being Jesus” in today's world.

What I learned in my year of being Jesus is that Jesus was special, but not because he was more divine then the rest of us, but because he was courageously more human than most.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

What’s ironic is that after submitting my final manuscript to Zondervan, I blogged, tweeted, and Facebook-ed about <em>Being Jesus in Nashville</em>, causing my pre-order book sales to climb to an astounding Amazon ranking of 15,000. But it wasn’t long after that I received news of the rejection.

[/answer]

[question]But Zondervan still rejected the manuscript.[/question]

[answer]I’m not the first “heretic”/author to be let go of by Zondervan. Fellow pastor-author Rob Bell gets the credit for that. The hallmark of Christianity seems to have become who is excluded, which can include anything from a theological litmus test to what you wear to church on Sunday mornings. Since leaving institutional church and writing about my journey of shedding religion to find God, I have received hundreds of emails from other nobodies who feel judged and marginalized by Christianity, including Wanda the Waffle House waitress who’s only crime is having tattoos and wearing her Waffle House uniform to church, where people stare at her like she’s a whore and avoid talking to her after the service.[/answer]

[question]What would you say to people like Wanda now?[/question]

[answer]I wish I could tell Wanda and every person that they are born into this world as complete and whole human beings with equal worth to God as Jesus of Nazareth. In the eyes of the religious establishment we might be nobodies but we are <em>divine</em> nobodies, as much a child of God as that nobody Nazarene carpenter. This is the message I would like to get through to fellow survivors of childhood abuse. It’s the message I would have wanted to express to the 10-year-old girl sex slaves I encountered in brothels in Southeast Asia in my work as a human rights activist. As an ordained minister, it’s the message I wanted to deliver to a Christian friend who said, “I am a piece of shit to God, which is why I need Jesus.” It is very difficult to convince people that they are good and beautiful human beings when religion has sufficiently convinced them that they are “sinners” and despicable to God. It’s also difficult to deliver this message when institutional Christianity has convinced us that acknowledging the divine in every human is a betrayal of God.[/answer]

[question]How do you feel about the experience now, now that is it over?[/question]

&nbsp;

[answer]

This isn’t a Conan O’Brien thing for me – I’m not bitter about what happened with Zondervan. I’m not going to lie, the whole ordeal was personally devastating, tanked me out emotionally and led to my filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy… but I worked through it with the support of some great friends and a supportive social media network.

I had hoped early on that Zondervan and I could have worked all this out and still published the book. I saw a huge upside in doing so and perhaps avoid a Rob Bell scenario, which only seems to deepen the divide between people who hold different beliefs about God. I made what I thought was a powerful appeal to Zondervan, believing that our mutual love for Jesus could allow us to rise above whatever other theological differences there might be.

[/answer]

[question]Is that really even possible?[/question]

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

[answer]

A way perhaps to do this would have been to put a label on the cover stating that Zondervan didn’t necessarily support all the views expressed in the book. That would be unique. The book may have been even more interesting, more marketable – causing more book sales, which most book publishers, Christian or not, would want. Theological differences among professing Christians is nothing new. It has always been a part of the story of Christianity from its earliest days. I actually believed we could work – within the agreement of the contract – to create a book with an appeal outside the box of traditional Christian books.

But it wasn’t to be.

Now on the other side of this I don’t want to contribute to the divide. Zondervan did what they felt was consistent with their mission. Eventually I realized it wasn’t personal. I have friends at Zondervan who I hold in high regard.

[/answer]

In part 3, we’ll allow Jim to unpack his writing experience with Zondervan a little more and why his book was rejected.  Stay tuned.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;