Bible Sued For Homophobia
http://carnalnation.com/content/27776/10/gay-man-discovers-homophobia-bible-files-lawsuit
A gay man from Michigan is suing two bible publishers, claiming that they sell and distribute a translation of the Bible which has caused him emotional distress and violates his constitutional rights. Bradley LaShawn Fowler is seeking Zondervan for $60 million and $10 million from Thomas Nelson Publishing because their Bibles explicitly call homosexuality a sin in 1 Corinthians 6:9. In a standard King James translation, the passage reads, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind." Fowler is alleging that the publishers "manipulated" the translation by changing "abusers of themselves with mankind" to "homosexuals."Of course, that's not an unusual reading of that particular passage. Many other modern translations say the same thing. For example:
New International Version:
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 homosexual offenders...
New American Standard Bible:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals....
New King James Version:
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites...
English Standard Version:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality...
And so on. It looks like if Fowler is serious about his cause, he has a lot of suing ahead of him. Maybe the truth is that although liberal Christians wish otherwise, homophobia is a congenital part of the Bible that can't be neatly excised.
Fowler says that by calling homosexuality a sin, the Bibles published by Zondervan and Thomas Nelson have caused periods of "demoralization, chaos and bewilderment," and made him ostracized from his family. He sees the issue as being not one of legitimate translation, but of the publishers deliberately imposing an anti-gay agenda by changing the text of the Bible. He claims that Zondervan Bibles published in 1982 and 1987 used the word "homosexuals" in the text, while those before and after those editions don't. However, a Grand Rapids television station checked several editions of Bibles published by Zondervan, and says that all versions since the 1980s have said "homosexuals." For their part, Zondervan claims the case is ridiculous (and for once, we have to agree with the Christians on this); according to a spokesperson, they neither translate the Bible, nor do they own the copyrights to the translations that they publish.
Somehow I don't see this going very far.