Still bathed in the glow of his Conservative Bible Project, Andrew Schlafly is now taking on the more esteemed translators of the Bible. Nevermind the fact that Andy's "translation" is a lukewarm abortion of a project, which involved several parodists changing words such as "thee" to "you" and "wine" to "grape juice". Oh yes, and the removal of the whole 'let he who is without sin cast the first stone' liberal garbage - because Andy's Jesus is all about hellfire, baby.
At no point did they revert back to the original Greek (or should that be Aramaic?) documents, even though Terry Hurlbut tried gamely for a bit, armed with an English / Greek pocket dictionary and Google Translate, but even he fell away. Despite all this, and the legion flaws contained in Andy's "translation" he went forth to proclaim the Good News. Well, he appeared on the Colbert Report, and didn't quite get the fact that he was the butt of their joke. Hint: Andy, people are laughing AT you, not with you. Still, now he's going after his detractors... hopefully not one at a time, because I think the universe will end before he gets done. First on his list is Prof. Douglas Moo, who is currently involved in a new translation of the NIV and TNIV, who dared call Andy's project "silly."
Now, we all know Andy can bear a grudge, as witnessed by his on-going whiny bitchiness with Pres. Obama (who probably kicked Andy's ass on the HLR) and Prof Lenski (who gave Andy a more public whipping), so now he's going to vent his spleen on Prof Moo, with yet another letter, which I've reproduced below. We can't wait for Prof Moo's reply. Maybe I should give him a heads-up that he's in the Schlafinator's sights. He could probably do with a good laugh. As could Jerry Falwell, Jr. (President of Liberty University) and L. Roy Taylor (Stated Clerk, Presbyterian Church of America) whom Andy has, or will, cc in his letter. Maybe he thinks that one of them will endorse his sad little project.
Text of the letter
June 30, 2010
Professor Douglas Moo
Wheaton Graduate School
Chairman, Committee on Bible Translation
Dear Professor Moo,I hope this letter finds you well in your capacity as the Chairman of the Committee on Bible Translation, which reportedly oversaw the TNIV translation and, according to an article on Sept. 1, 2009 in the USA Today, is producing a new revision of the NIV translation.[1] In an interview at that time, you mentioned the publishers' "deflecting any possible claim that the 2011 NIV was a secretive project" and that your Committee is "seeking input from anyone who wants to make a suggestion about how the 2011 NIV might be improved."[2]
Ten months later, the question is this: has a single word of your new translation been made available for public review?
I have concern that your Committee might produce a liberal translation that distorts and conceals references to the unborn child in appeasement of the pro-abortion position. Conservapedia has identified nine (9) instances where the NIV obscures biblical references to the unborn child, and in each of these instances the NIV mistranslation denies biblical confirmation of pro-life truths. See the Feminist Bible entry on Conservapedia. If you dispute this, then I will post any rebuttal you might have.
Most college professors support abortion, and many of them would downplay or conceal recognition of the unborn child. Any unwillingness by the Committee to allow public review of the relevant passages in its work would heighten my concern. Applying a famous saying to the class of liberal professors, "fool me once, shame on them; fool me twice, shame on me."
You harshly criticized our translation effort, declaring that "Silly is probably as kind as I could be about it."[3] Yet we completed our work on the New Testament two months ago, all in full public view.[4] Where is yours?
I look forward to your response and will post it for the benefit of others, unless you request otherwise.
Sincerely,
Andy Schlafly
Conservapedia
What makes Andy's letter so funny, is that he's using the same arguing style as he does on CP, i.e. wild accusations with no supporting evidence, except for equally bizarre articles at CP itself. Still, at least there's one thing to be said about Andy, no matter how many times, or where (as in the New Jersey Supreme Court) he makes a complete fool of himself, and by association Conservapedia too, he's alway ready to run face-first into another wall. And for as long as he does that, I'll be cheering the buffoon on.
I once ran into a wall. It's not fun, so why Andy keeps doing it is anyones guess.
ReplyDeleteI still harbour a deep-seated belief that Conservapedia is a actually a massive joke that we've all fallen for, and one day, Andy will take off his mask and Colbert will be standing there.
ReplyDeletePS I see your wall and raise you a plate glass window.
I like the bizarre belief that faster is better, in the case of translation it is obviously not. Also, the belief that being done in public means being done right. The fact that Moo and his team probably have hundreds of years combined experience translating and working with the bible and Andy's team has the length of time they were working on it, does tend to suggest which ones translation will overall all be of higher quality.
ReplyDelete