Sunday, July 13, 2008

Gay man sues Bible publishers for $70 million

From Planet Out:
Revisions to Bibles published by Zondervan and Thomas Nelson Publishing have introduced the language that homosexuality is a sin, Bradley LaShawn Fowler of Canton, Mich., asserts in his lawsuit in federal court.

On his blog, he charts the example of First Corinthians 6:9:

"In 1964, the scripture read as follows:
Know ye not that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates, nor abusers of themselves with mankind...
In 1982, the same scripture read:
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexuals...
By 1987, it had morphed to
Do you not know that the unrighteous and the wrong doers will not inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived(misled): neither the impure and immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who participate in homosexual behavior . . .


Fowler argues that it was the publishers' intent when making their revisions to cause "me or anyone who is a homosexual to endure verbal abuse, discrimination, episodes of hate and physical violence . . . including murder." (The Advocate)

1 comment:

cp said...

For a modern paraphrase that has what I consider a more useful interpretation for the present day, with our deeper understanding of sexuality, look no further than Eugene Peterson's The Message:

Don't you realize that this is not the way to live? Unjust people who don't care about God will not be joining his kingdom. Those who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex, use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don't qualify as citizens in God's kingdom