Editing the Bible

[IndianaGreen]

Editing the Bible

Mike Lux
Author, The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be
Posted: October 6, 2009 08:25 PM

You have to love the pluck and persistence and creativity of the conservative movement. They always give us something to talk about.

Earlier today, I was debating as to whether to write about health care (my most frequent topic these days), or jobs, an incredibly urgent issue there's been some important articles about in the last 48 hours. And I will of course get back to those centrally important topics soon. But before I do, I have to spend a minute focused on my conservative movement friends. I really have to congratulate them on their creativity.

Some folks I know have been surprised at the level of violent and vitriolic rhetoric they have worked themselves into since Obama took office. Bringing assault weapons to Presidential events, while wearing t-shirts referencing quotes about spilling the blood of tyrants? Talking openly about secession and armed rebellion? Saying that giving women the right to vote was a bad idea? Saying that Obama hated white people? It's all been done in recent weeks by movement conservatives, openly, publicly. I haven't been surprised, because as a student of history, and a staffer for Bill Clinton, I have seen all of these rhetorical flourishes before throughout history.

But every once in a while, folks in the conservative movement surprise me and come up with something new. And this one is a doozy. Apparently the folks at Conservapedia are re-translating the Bible to make it fit better with conservative ideology.

<snip>

Now there are no suggestions about what this new translation might do with all those inconvenient references to the poor - feeding them, housing them, justice for them, etc. There are several hundred of those, so you would have a lot of editing to do to get rid of all that, or make it more "free market oriented." And if you just got rid of it entirely by ascribing it all to "later insertions," you would have a noticeably thinner Bible. And all those references to peace-making, the rich having trouble getting into heaven, etc.- all that would have to go, too.

I find this kind of thing really fun, actually. I really do admire their creativity and pure chutzpah (oh wait, is that too Jewish a word?). And it's a great principle: you find something inconvenient or tricky in a beloved text, just get rid of it. Next up: The Declaration of Independence and Gettysburg Address.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/editing-the-bible_b_311858.html

[valerief]

1. It's almost November, the NANO month, where contestants write a novel in a month.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=216x5883

I think every entry should be a Bible!

:rofl:

[sjdnb]

2. That's the problem with myths/legends

Without scientific, fact based, provable evidence, any wackjob can come along and modify the 'truth' for their own purposes. It's why the founding fathers separated church and state. Yet, 230+ years later, we are still wasting resources supporting/arguing myth and legend.

[obliviously]

3. No need to edit any sacred book

except what you want and reject what you want.

[imdjh]

4. editing the bible is forbidden, by the bible

Revelation 22:18-19 (King James Version)

18For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

[zanne]

10. Your post title is hilarious. Good work! nt

[comtec]

20. Heh heh oh yes because god REALLY stuck down Jefferson

who re-wrote the bible w/o any miracles.
I need to find myself a copy as it sounds wonderful for real spirituality.
not the bs the 'thumpers shew.

[HillbillyBob]

5. I am not a fan of book burnings as someone said before

during the run up to ww2 "anyone who burns books, will burn people too"
I forget who and exactly the quote. I think it was Einstein , I do remember it was referring to the book burnings in Nazi Germany...but this production should be burned or maybe the hard drives fried with a large magnet. I don't much care for the babel anyway it has been used as a weapon against me too much in the past. I am so godam sick of selfservative pricks.

[chollybocker]

21. The quote you cite comes from Heinrich Heine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Heine

"
Among the thousands of books burned on Berlin's Opernplatz in 1933, following the Nazi raid on the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, were works by Heinrich Heine. To commemorate the terrible event, one of the most famous lines of Heine's 1821 play Almansor was engraved in the ground at the site: "Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." ("Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people.")
"

:)

[LuvNewcastle]

6. They might as well edit the Bible.

Numerous books and passages were left out of the first draft. This is just another attempt to make the Bible fit the agenda of a few people.

[FreakinDJ]

7. Why Not - they already Bastardized the Teachings of Jesus

Made it up as they went along. Now they want to put their Bullshit into print

[imdjh]

16. Jesus isn't off the hook. He affirmed the Old Testament.

[Zoeisright]

8. Did you know that that Bible blasphemy site is run by Phyllis Schlafly's son?

So we see what her spawn is up to. No good, just like her. Andrew Schlafly.

[zanne]

9. When I go to Healthcare reform rallies and vigils...

My sign always mentions the morality behind health care for everyone. I know their think tanks are just staying up at night, working themselves into a lather trying to come up with an argument for that one. They'll find one, no doubt.
Recently, I had a LTTE published in our local paper and somebody sent me a letter arguing against my take on the morality of it by telling me to read the constitution. They really have to come up with something better than that. I'm keeping my eyes and ears open--they can be funny people.

[Quasimodem]

11. I'll see your book and raise you one.

“Misquoting Jesus: the story behind who changed the Bible and why” by Bart D. Ehrman

“. . . for almost fifteen hundred years these manuscripts were hand copied by scribes who were deeply influenced by the cultural, theological, and political disputes of their day. Both mistakes and intentional changes abound in the surviving manuscripts, making the original words difficult to reconstruct. . . .”

http://tinyurl.com/y9p7mrl

[sjdnb]

12. Yep, just like all other myths and legends ... these stories are almost

certainly exaggerated if not made up entirely.

[niyad]

13. I used to think one had to be able to read and write before one could edit something

guess I was wrong.

[old mark]

14. First, get rid of all that jewish stuff, all that about helping the poor and sick

and loving your neighbor as yourself, make the apostles businessmen instead of working men, and make jesus the VP in his dad's construction business. Add parts to clarfy god's "perfect hate" of gays (add hate for liberals, too) and keep the parts about women being subservient to men. Should be about 15-20 pages tops, can do it in a pamphlet.

Cartoon illustrations of the red-blond blue eyed Jesus on the cover and theoughout the "text".


Forward by Sarah Palin.

mark

[imdjh]

15. There is plenty of hate in the Old Testament

[old mark]

17. But it's Jewish hate, not good christian hate. nt

[imdjh]

18. The Jews always get a pass. When you think about it, everything is their fault.

Judaism predates Christianity and Islam, right? Islam is on the warpath, Christianity has retired from the warpath and is just trying to annoy the fuck out of everybody. And who is walking through the middle saying, "Who me?" The Jews (say it with "da bears" in mind). They invented the God of Abraham, if not Abraham himself. OK, so maybe they were actually Egyptians at the time and we could blame Egypt, pick, pick.

[old mark]

19. My wife, who is a nice Jewish Girl from Philly, says that if you put

3 Jews in a room, you wind up with at least 4 different opinions. A lot of the "blame" comes from other Jews.

I heard some very conservative christian trying to deny any connection between the Jewish and christian tradition - he further stated the US was a "christian" country, not a judeo - christian country, which was the basis for my take on the wunderful new scripture that is evidently about to be revealed to us - what Jesus REALLY meant.....

Personally, I'm waiting for the Rapture so I can get a little peace and quiet.

mark