In a book published Tuesday called God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships, openly gay Christian activist Matthew Vines argues that the Bible’s ostensible precepts against homosexuality nonetheless permit same-sex marriage. Vines has had his critics in the evangelical community since his 2012 lecture on this subject went viral, but now his publisher—Convergent Books, part of a publishing group that includes several traditional Christian imprints—is in the crosshairs, too.

“For many years now, publishers have been releasing books that claim that the Bible does not oppose committed homosexual relationships. That is nothing new,” argued The Christian Post’s Michael Brown. “But it is a sad and shameful day when a major Christian publisher releases such a book and claims that it is a solid evangelical publication. This is abhorrent, disgraceful, and terribly misleading.” On Glenn Beck’s website The Blaze, the headline of a similarly critical article reads, “Deception: Christian Publisher Sells Soul For Mammon.” A reference to Jesus’ teaching, “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24), the knock would seem to be that Convergent is betraying itself and its faith for the purpose of making a buck.

A closer look at the publishing web in which Convergent exists suggests this may not be true. Either way, it is notable that the chief question stirred by the book is not whether evangelical and other religiously orthodox Christians can reconcile same-sex marriage with their faith, but whether evangelical and other religiously orthodox Christians can reconcile their social conservatism with the free market.

Convergent shares a staff, a Colorado Springs office, and a boss, Stephen W. Cobb, with two “sister imprints.” These comprise the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, an evangelical division of Penguin Random House whose two eponymous imprints are “committed to creating products that both intensify and satisfy the elemental thirst for a deeper relationship with God,” and Image Books, which publishes an array of Catholic-themed titles.

To some, Convergent is a sinister means of washing heterodox opinions in orthodox water. In his Blaze essay, Matt Barber reports that the different imprints are for practical purposes the same, and that several staffers there are upset at the publication of Vines’s book. “It’s smoke and mirrors,” Barber wrote. “It’s confusing because it’s designed to be confusing. It’s intentional—a shell game purposefully calculated to obfuscate and hide the ball from the Christian community.”