Topic: Media Research Center
An Oct. 6 MRC Culture & Media Institute article by Matt Philbin and Colleen Raezler describes a "Conservative Bible Project" only as an effort "to rid the Good Book of 'translational bias' and correct the 'lack of precision' in both original and translational language," then complained that liberals were "heaping derision on the effort."
But Philbin and Raezler failed to offer details on the extent to which the Conservative Bible Project wants to rewrite the Bible and, thus, offer the background to explain the liberal derision. From the project's main page:
As of 2009, there is no fully conservative translation of the Bible which satisfies the following ten guidelines:[2]
- Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias
- Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, "gender inclusive" language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity
- Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level[3]
- Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop;[4] defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle".
- Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as "gamble" rather than "cast lots";[5] using modern political terms, such as "register" rather than "enroll" for the census
- Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
- Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
- Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story
- Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
- Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word "Lord" rather than "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or "Lord God."
As others have pointed out, guidelines 3 and 10 appear to conflict with each other. And it presumes that the Bible as originally written embraces no liberal principles, which the Conservapedia folks have yet to demonstrate.
But Philbin and Raezler detail none of this, noting only that the Conservative Bible Project is either "inspired or misguided" and sneering at any criticism of it.
