SUBJECT: RELIGION!!! (AND POLITICS!!!)
A few months ago, an uncle of mine who is a staunch conservative and a devout Lutheran asked me if I had heard anything about something called "The Conservative Bible Project". At the time, I had not, but I took a look and was unimpressed -- indeed, completely underwhelmed.
This Lent, I am preparing some meditations on the Seven Words of Christ from the Cross.
Guess what?
The Conservative Bible Project comes up again!
This outfit, the "brainchild" of Andy Schlafly (using the term EXTREMELY loosely) is attempting to re-translate the King James Bible by omitting alleged "liberal translation distortions" (their words)!
Like, for example, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing"!
The argument? Because certain early manuscripts do not include this verse, it must be a later interpolation by LIBERALS!!! The REAL Jesus would never have said anything so radical about forgiving one's enemies!
Other examples: The story of Jesus forgiving the woman caught in the act of adultery in John's Gospel is tossed out as well! While certain early manuscripts place this story in Luke's Gospel rather than John's Gospel, it's inclusion in Scripture has been testified for more than 1500 years. BUT, some LIBERALS, like to use this passage as an argument against Capital Punishment -- so it must go as well!!!!!!!
Check out other examples if you like -- I'm not going to waste blog space doing so.
Now conservative interpreters and exegetes have rightly criticized certain elements of the religious left for overusing the tools of higher criticism to go beyond criticism and analysis to outright deconstructionism, from the so-called "Quest for the Historic Jesus" to "The Jesus Seminar", etc. And in the opinion of your worthy blogger, many of these criticisms are valid. (Not all -- that's a topic for another post!)
But there is an old saying which says that what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If conservatives are going to criticize liberals for textual deconstruction; it seems to me that they are legitimately subject to equal criticism for engaging in the same sort of faux analysis.
The "Conservative Bible Project" is an embarrassment which should be exposed for the fraud it is. The contributors (who are certainly NOT "translators" in any meaningful sense of the word) ought to be ashamed.
Blessings,
Papa Z.
This Lent, I am preparing some meditations on the Seven Words of Christ from the Cross.
Guess what?
The Conservative Bible Project comes up again!
This outfit, the "brainchild" of Andy Schlafly (using the term EXTREMELY loosely) is attempting to re-translate the King James Bible by omitting alleged "liberal translation distortions" (their words)!
Like, for example, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing"!
The argument? Because certain early manuscripts do not include this verse, it must be a later interpolation by LIBERALS!!! The REAL Jesus would never have said anything so radical about forgiving one's enemies!
Other examples: The story of Jesus forgiving the woman caught in the act of adultery in John's Gospel is tossed out as well! While certain early manuscripts place this story in Luke's Gospel rather than John's Gospel, it's inclusion in Scripture has been testified for more than 1500 years. BUT, some LIBERALS, like to use this passage as an argument against Capital Punishment -- so it must go as well!!!!!!!
Check out other examples if you like -- I'm not going to waste blog space doing so.
Now conservative interpreters and exegetes have rightly criticized certain elements of the religious left for overusing the tools of higher criticism to go beyond criticism and analysis to outright deconstructionism, from the so-called "Quest for the Historic Jesus" to "The Jesus Seminar", etc. And in the opinion of your worthy blogger, many of these criticisms are valid. (Not all -- that's a topic for another post!)
But there is an old saying which says that what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If conservatives are going to criticize liberals for textual deconstruction; it seems to me that they are legitimately subject to equal criticism for engaging in the same sort of faux analysis.
The "Conservative Bible Project" is an embarrassment which should be exposed for the fraud it is. The contributors (who are certainly NOT "translators" in any meaningful sense of the word) ought to be ashamed.
Blessings,
Papa Z.
Labels: Christianity, Politics
posted by David Zampino | 3:37 PM
3 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Wow. I had not heard of this one. Certainly not worth a dime of anyone's money...or the time they are giving to it themselves.
Surely they have better ways of expressing their conservatism than by slicing and dicing God's Word!
Great post! Have you heard of Conservapedia? Its an attempt to root "the liberal bias" out of Wikipedia!
http://www.conservapedia.com/Main_Page
My take: The truth has a liberal bias.
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