The Conservative Bible Project

Through the wonderful blogosphere essay forum, Religion Dispatches, I've been made aware of a particular group of conservative Christians called "The Conservative Bible Project." Interestingly, according to this community (founded by Andy Schlafly, also founder of Conservapedia), apparently the English translations of the Bible have become too liberalized and must be re-written, re-translated, and edited so as to free it from its progressive-liberal bias.

Although most scholars and practitioners alike find this project to be a bit of a joke, I somewhat find this to be a fascinating project. I think it lifts up some very pertinent and significant questions about biblical translation and interpretation and the Bible's relation to politics. As Joseph Laycock and Thomas Fabisiak write in their Oct. 21, 2009 essay in Religion Dispatches, "Is Schlafly a profoundly cynical politician, attempting to manipulate religion in a way that would put Machiavelli and Karl Rove to shame? Or does he truly believe that the Bible has been tainted by 'liberalism' for over a thousand years?" They have a point.

I also share Laycock and Fabisiak's connection of this project to The Jefferson Bible. For those who are unaware, America's 3rd president, Thomas Jefferson, felt that the Bible had been abused, corrupted, and misappropriated by Christians for so many years that he set out on a project where he excised all the supernatural passages out of the New Testament, or those that referred to miracles of some kind. After his cut and paste venture, all that was left was largely those pericope's of Jesus' teachings and parables. The connection to Schlafly is striking. The question becomes, "Is Schlafly attempting a conservative version of the Jeffersonian editing enterprise?"

Probably not exactly. Jefferson's pursuit was totally personal and wasn't published until years later, whereas Schlafly's project is aimed at being very public, political and geared toward dispelling a certain category of infestation -- "the liberal."

Check out Laycock and Fabisiak's essay at Religion Dispatches.

There also a write-up of the project by Rachel Weiner in the Huffington Post.

(Image from Religion Dispatches website; it's a section of the Conservative Bible Project's Bible translation, which translates "Pharisee" as "Liberal.")