Schaeffer says we have to move past them & leave them alone on their proverbial hill top; that one cannot organize village life to suit the village idiot, in this case, the Evangelical Far Right.
I can't introduce this any better than Rachel Weiner of the Huffington Post: "Lo and behold, the Bible has gotten too liberal, according to a group of conservatives. And it needs a little editing." Yikes! Surely, Jesus must be shaking his head at this one.
Now if we were in humour mode & believed this was some kind of joke, here's how Rackjite.com's suggestions for bible 'revisions':
There was his moment of anger.
"I shall take 10% on all transactions in this temple! Or the whip!"On being a good Christian...
"Rich men shall ride on camels while the poor shall have needles in their eyes."The Sermon on the Mount, known as the C-Attitutes?
"If one strikes you on the check, turn on them without mercy."
"Do unto others before they do unto you."
"Only through Free markets shall you gain the Kingdom of Heaven."
"Blessed are the assholes for they shall own the Earth."The last supper...
"Wretched are the peacemakers who shall be done in."
"The poor shall inherit hunger, pain and disease."
"Take this wine and this bread as my blood and as my body. In doing so found a religion in my named based upon cannibalism and tomorrow's execution."And of course those famous last words...
"Father, never forgive these bastards for they know exactly what they do!
This is unfortunately, no joke. As Frank Schaeffer wrote in the Huffington Post, these are dangerous times due to threatening behaviour in God's name. Now, it seems that wingnuts like Schlafly are about to somehow make neo-con ideologies like greed & craziness official by rewriting the bible. Should we be scared shitless? You betcha!
This week, on Conservapedia, it seems they're going to suit their whims & rewrite the bible. It' too 'Liberal'. They want to remove all the so-called 'liberal' passages in the bible. The Old & New Testaments will be gutted beyond recognition considering they want to eliminate such phrases like helping the poor, healing the sick, forgiveness, etc. I'm still shaking my head at this. What's the matter? Brainwashing not working anymore? They underestimated the American population's ability to read?
Or, perhaps they saw Michael Moore's movie, Capitalism, A Love Story & paid particular attention to the segments where two parish priests & a bishop from the arch-diocese of Detroit denounce capitalism & corporate greed as well as the segment where the priest is presiding over mass & giving communion to the laid-off workers sitting in Republic Door & Window in Chicago.
Schafly & other such neo-con wingnuts must have been gasping for air on those segments.
Andy Schlafly founded Conservapedia because he felt that Wikipedia was too 'liberal' & 'Anti-Christian'. Here's what he had to say about Operation Pervert the bible beyond recognition:
“The trouble is, new translations of the Bible are done by professors at liberal universities who overwhelmingly voted for Obama,” Mr. Schlafly said. “Their political bias seeps into their translations and we felt it necessary to counteract that with one that uproots and eradicates any liberal bias.”
Here are just some of the items to be 'edited':
- 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."
Also, no doubt, this new version would be sure to include the fact that President Obama is the anti-Christ.
Yeah, Mr. Schlafly, whatever floats your boat, man & of course, maybe even make millions with the sales of these new versions?? Gulp!
Rachel Maddow couldn't believe this was not a joke as she groans in her show:
What's worse is that once this perversion is complete, it will be effectively marketed & become a best seller.
Who's more dangerous now? Fundamentalist Islamic fringe groups or the far right Christian Evangelicals? Honestly, I don't know anymore.
Can Christianity as well as other denominations be rescued?
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