Christianity Today Rejects $10 Million Buyout Offer from Douglas Wilson's Canon Press

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Christianity Today has declined a $10 million buyout bid from Canon Press, with its interim president and CEO emphasizing that the publication is not for sale and stands within the mainstream of conservative evangelical thought.

The offer became public Sept. 29 when Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham posted a letter from Canon Press stating: “We appreciate Christianity Today and are confident that we can grow it to reach a larger audience and increase its impact, all while preserving that legacy.”

Canon Press is based in Moscow, Idaho, and was founded by Douglas Wilson.

“We know the publishing business in America and the world is changing rapidly and fundamentally,” the offer letter states. “At Canon Press, we have a publishing and streaming platform built to thrive in this new environment where Christians come under fire for expressing the most basic truths. Charlie Kirk carried the torch of Christianity Today’s founder, Billy Graham, as a global evangelist, and it is in his legacy that we see the future of Christianity Today.”

Christianity Today was founded in 1956 by Graham, with Carl F. H. Henry serving as its first editor.

Basham asserted: “I have heard many Christians lament that @CTmagazine has been captured by worldly ideology and wish someone would restore it to Billy Graham’s intended purpose.”

Thomas Addington, interim president and CEO of Christianity Today, told The Roys Report that CT rejected the offer.

“We recently received an unsolicited offer by a third party to purchase Christianity Today,” Addington said. “Christianity Today is not for sale and has never been for sale.”

Addington also offered details about a $1 million donation to Christianity Today, spread over four years from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, a major funder of abortion giant Planned Parenthood. That donation was the focus of a recent Daily Wire story. The Roys Report stated that $400,000 of the donation was allocated to general operating support, while $200,000 was allocated for U.S. election reporting in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

The Hewlett Foundation says it “takes a hands-off approach and exercises no editorial control,” according to The Roys Report.

“Nothing Hewlett funded for Christianity Today had connection to our Evangelical pro-life convictions,” Addington told The Roys Report. “Neither has there been any attempt by Hewlett or any other granting agency to influence our pro-life reporting. Christianity Today believes and supports a conservative Evangelical pro-life stance. We would never take funding from any individual or organization that asked us to modify that position.”

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Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel. 

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