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This strikes me as unhelpful and ultimately dangerous and counter productive:
The Gospel of Luke records that, as he was dying on the cross, Jesus showed his boundless mercy by praying for his killers this way: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
Not so fast, say contributors to the Conservative Bible Project.
The project, an online effort to create a Bible suitable for contemporary conservative sensibilities, claims Jesus’ quote is a disputed addition abetted by liberal biblical scholars, even if it appears in some form in almost every translation of the Bible.
The project’s authors argue that contemporary scholars have inserted liberal views and ahistorical passages into the Bible, turning Jesus into little more than a well-meaning social worker with a store of watered-down platitudes.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
There are of course cultural issues involved in Bible translations; and there is a debate to be had about how the translation and interpretation of the Bible has been warped and misused – on both sides – by political ideology over the years.
But bringing the political labels Liberal and Conservative into a debate about Bible translation, and adding it to the larger culture war, strikes me as very bad idea and one that takes away from the focus of faith rather than adding to it.
Tony Woodlief is worth quoting:
Did Jesus really ask the Father to forgive his persecutors, these people ask, or is that just another distortion from the Vast Left-Wing Hippy-Homo-Commie Conspiracy?
It’s funny how from the beginning, the people who claim to love God most zealously are the ones who get most upset about His loving unsavory types. I think rather than worrying over whether the sins of others will be forgiven, and over who is in and who is out of the Salvation Club, we ought to think more on the state of our own sorry souls, and meditate especially on the promise that the forgiveness we receive will be measured out according to the forgiveness we have offered others.
And so in that spirit, may God have mercy on these people who take it upon themselves to stand outside the one holy catholic and apostolic Church and rewrite the content and meaning of Holy Scriptures.
Amen.
