But remember, folks, that the radical homosexualist agenda is no threat to any of your rights under the Constitution of the United States.

Christian publisher Zondervan is facing a $60 million federal lawsuit filed by a man who claims he and other homosexuals have suffered based on what the suit claims is a misinterpretation of the Bible.

But a company spokeswoman says Zondervan doesn't translate the Bible or own the copyright for any of the translations. Instead, she said in a statement, the company relies on the "scholarly judgment of credible translation committees."

That is to say, setting aside whether the federal civil rights lawsuit is credible, the company says Bradley Fowler sued the wrong group.

His suit centers on one passage in scripture -- 1 Corinthians 6:9 -- and how it reads in Bibles published by Zondervan.

Fowler says Zondervan Bibles published in 1982 and 1987 use the word homosexuals among a list of those who are "wicked" or "unrighteous" and won't inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Fowler says his family's pastor used that Zondervan Bible, and because of it his family considered him a sinner and he suffered.

Now he is asking for an apology and $60 million.

"To compensate for the past 20 years of emotional duress and mental instability," Fowler told 24 Hour News 8 in a phone interview.

Now wait just one minute. Do you mean to tell me that federal courts are now going to rule on the proper translation of biblical passages? That strikes me as a rather grave intrusion into a realm that the First Amendment would seem to bar. Especially when you consider that at least three other translations that I encountered and others refer to men having sex with men or "mankind" -- and therefore clearly refer to homosexual practice -- going back to at least the King James Version in the early 1600s. What's more, the English translation of Calvin's Geneval Bible refers to "buggerers" -- again, something understood at the time as a reference to homosexuality. For that matter, reference back to the book of Genesis makes it clear that the sin of Sodom, from which the term "sodomy" arises, was HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITY (though some contemporary theologians attempt to reinterpret it as failure to give proper protection to guests)!

But in the end, this entire matter comes down to a theological dispute over the proper translation of the Bible and whether dynamic equivalence or formal equivalence is the proper method of translating biblical manuscripts from the ancient dead languages in which they were written in centuries past -- and, implicitly, whether the doctrinal interpretations of scriptural passages which have arisen within Christianity over the last two millennia are correct. And that, my friends, cuts straight to the heart of the First Amendment guarantees of free exercise of religion and non-establishment of religion.

Oh, and why Zondervan as the target in this lawsuit? Because they are the biggest publisher of Bibles in America, and the NIV (in its various forms) are the biggest selling text in America today, usually selling more than the venerable King James Version in any given year. Drive them and their best selling translation out of the market, and the hope would be to silence Christians in this country in the same way that Canada's human rights commissions are being used to silence them in the Formerly-Great White North.

H/T STACLU. Right Pundits

Posted by: Greg at 06:28 AM | Comments (33) | Add Comment
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