A CBA official has urged online book buyers to think twice about purchasing Christian resources on the Internet rather than through the local Christian bookstore.

Shopping at brick-and-mortar outlets keeps the money in the local community where some stores support church ministries, while Web buys can support online merchants who also sell pornography and other objectionable materials, said Curtis Riskey, the retail trade association's strategic solutions executive.

Riskey made his think-again appeal in a posting to a lively online debate about the best place to buy Christian books hosted at www.challies.com, the Web site of reviewer and blogger Tim Challies.

Fifty-five percent of those who responded to Challies' poll cited Amazon.com as their preferred place to buy Christian books, more than three times the number that said they went to stores. The online purchasers criticized Christian stores for poor selection, lack of discernment in what they carried, pricing and too much emphasis on non-book items.

Responding to comments at Challies' site, Riskey said Christian consumers should consider the question of stewardship in their spending. "Are we building the kingdom or something else?" he wrote.

"Without customer support, our nation's Christian retail stores will cease to exist," he said and the fallout would be "heartbreaking." A vital channel of resources would be lost, as would a business model that "holds publishers responsible for producing books and materials that uphold biblical truths and doctrine… replaced by the secular influence of general bookstores and Web sites interested only in the 'hot-selling' new book watered down for the masses."

Challies, who is also editor of the Web site www.discerningreader.com, was named one of Christian Retailing's "40 under 40" young leaders earlier this year for his online writing read by many in the industry.