Alternatives for troops

In with Bible verses, out with bikinis.

Southern Baptists are sending Christian magazines to troops in Iraq as an alternative to “lad mags” featuring scantily clad women, hoping to get clean, positive images in front of the servicemen.

Lifeway Christian Resources, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, is working with Baptist associations and churches to create “Lifeboxes,” which include magazines like Christian Single, notes of encouragement, gum, socks, candy, stationery supplies and wet wipes.

“Soldiers have said that mail and magazines are greatly appreciated, and now we have an opportunity to have a positive impact on their lives,” says Rhonda Buescher, director of Lifeway’s magazine advertising and circulation.

Nearly 3,500 churches across the country are trying to mail between 35,000 and 50,000 boxes to troops by March 23 so they can arrive by Easter on April 8.

Buescher said Nashville, Tenn.-based Lifeway helped launch the project after hearing from Fort Campbell soldiers who said they would be interested in receiving Christian magazines.

“They said, ‘Frankly, when we’re away from our families, we don’t need to be seeing soft-core pornography,’ ” she says.

Maxim and other “lad mags” such as Stuff and FHM feature partially clothed women posing provocatively but without the explicit nudity that’s in Playboy and other men’s magazines.

Soldiers from Fort Campbell, located on the Kentucky-Tennessee line, said U.S. troops were receiving Maxim free of charge, and they wanted a Christian alternative, Buescher says.

Maxim spokesman Sean Evans says the magazine is not pornography and that soldiers have requested it since the war in Iraq began nearly four years ago.

Evans says he doesn’t know how many copies of Maxim have been sent to troops in Iraq or if the magazines were sent free of charge without soldiers requesting them.

“We congratulate Lifeway on their much-needed Lifebox project for soldiers overseas,” he says. “The soldiers have written to us by the thousands about the popular movies, TV shows, DVDs they read about in Maxim that they wish they could be seeing back home.”

Dozens of Lifeway boxes already have been mailed to troops by churches in the Fort Campbell area and in Virginia as part of a pilot program, Buescher says.

Jimmie Miles, a retired military chaplain and minister of education at Winfree Memorial Baptist Church in Midlothian, Va., sent about 50 boxes in November to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The congregation mailed most of the boxes to soldiers from Fort Lee, located about 20 miles south of the church. The congregation has received several thank-you notes from troops, Miles says.

“There are all types of magazines available to troops, but I know from my requests from the troops, it was basically, ‘We’d like to have this type of magazine, more family-oriented,’ ” he says.

As part of the project, churches donate money to their local Baptist association to pay for magazines and postage. Baptist associations then order magazines, including HomeLife, Christian Single or Journey, through Lifeway at a special discount and enlist churches to participate.

Addresses of military personnel or chaplains are collected from churches and from Web sites that have names of military personnel who wish to receive mail. Churches then assemble and mail the boxes.

Sandy Bain, director of missions for the New River Baptist Association in Jacksonville, N.C., is on the Lifeway committee that helped create the boxes.

“We feel like for them to have something on a more Christian basis would be better for them and their families as well,” Bain said.

“It shows that somebody cares. It’s also giving them a chance to feed their faith.”