Here’s a little Saturday fun for you. In his “Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger” segment a few nights ago, Stephen Colbert takes on (among other things) the new Conservative Bible Project being sponsored by Conservapedia. I just about fell out of my chair when Colbert started referencing some of the principles underlying this translation project. Here are a few gems from Conservapedia’s page about their Bible translation (quotes are taken straight from the page, text out of quotes is my commentary):
“Liberal bias has become the single biggest distortion in modern Bible translations.” Really? Can I find someone who can say that to me with a straight face? Political bias is the biggest distortion? I’m stunned.
Here is there suggestion for how to get this bias under control. They say it requires, “conservative principles to control and eliminate.” So, we get rid of an alleged liberal bias and replace it with a conservative one? My goodness, repent.
“Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, “gender inclusive” language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity.” In almost all cases gender inclusive language is a more faithful and accurate translation of the original language. The fight against gender inclusion is not about faithfulness to Scripture, it is about sexism and about upholding societal norms. If anything, keeping gender-inclusive language out of the Bible is being liberal with the text.
“Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning.” Free-market capitalism isn’t Christian, folks, I hate to break it to you. If you’re looking to defend capitalism you’re better off looking to Ayn Rand than Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. In all honesty I would be curious to see what kind of interpretive gymnastics are used to turn Jesus’ parables into free market parables.
“Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story.” If they want to exclude stories that are thought to be later additions to the Bible that’s fine, but shouldn’t this be done because the passages are late additions, not because the passage is allegedly conservative or liberal? This quote (among others) illustrates the idolatry that is underlying this project.
They want to make, “a Conservative Bible that could become a text for public school courses.” We don’t legislate the Bible into schools. We bring God into schools through lives of sacrificial love that have been transformed by the Bible. The human heart can be controlled by laws, but it can only be transformed by love.
Ok, that’s enough for now. The whole page, as funny as it is, is also utterly offensive to me as a theologically conservative Christian. If you are a Christian, regardless of your political views, I hope it is offensive to you as well. Colbert does a nice job of poking fun at it, and of course, in his typical Colbertian manner, he goes over the top in his mockery.
On a more serious note, I think this project is indicative of the desire that exists within virtually all of us to try to impose our own non-biblical thought patterns on the Bible. I’m sure there are politically liberal Bible translation projects out there that have similarly sought to adjust the words of Scripture to support a political or social agenda. In poking fun at this project my intent is not a criticize conservatives- I’m quite certain that my fair-minded conservative friends who believe the Bible will find this ridiculous as well. They may even be more frustrated than I am because it is under taken by a group that they identify with. My intent, rather, is that being aware of this unfortunate “translation” project can cause all of us to be more aware of our own biases that we take to Scripture, and can cause us to be more earnest in praying that God would help us to hear his voice, rather than hearing confirmation of our own biases, when we read Scripture.
After all of that, here’s the video:
1 Comment
October 10, 2009 at 11:46 am
Thoughts from a Christian conservative –
Colbert = funny
translating the Bible to promote a conservative agenda = evil