Is the Bible too liberal?

"And you thought liberal bias was limited to the evil mainstream media," said Amy Sullivan in Time. The guys at Conservapedia (aka, "the trustworthy encyclopedia") have launched a project to retranslate the Bible, because, they say, "liberal bias has become the single biggest distortion in modern Bible translations." They want to "replace liberal words like 'labor'" with terms conservatives like better, and "explain the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning." This takes crazy to a whole new level.

Okay, so "an explicitly 'conservative' interpretation" of the Bible isn't such a great idea, said Ken Shepherd in Newsbusters.org. But it's interesting that Time's Sullivan and others are lambasting Conservapedia's Conservative Bible Project after all the "reverent treatment" the media gave to the "so-called Green Bible," an edition that claimed that "eco-neglect" violates Jesus' teachings by hurting the poor. How about treating both projects with equal doses of "scorn and thoughtful criticism"?

Conservapedia's mission is in a class by itself, said Rod Dreher in BeliefNet. "The insane hubris of this really staggers the mind." As Catholic blogger Mark Shea says, "some of this has a grain of sense to it, as ideological madness always does. For instance, the dumb attempts to feminize Scripture are pernicious and need to stop." But it's just laughable to think there are people out there trying to "make sure the Lord doesn't go all wobbly on us."

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One of the "most well-worn clichés in modern politics" is that conservatives are a bunch of "scary Christianists," said Paul Zummo in Southern Appeal (via First Things). But it's the Left that is trying to "recruit Jesus Christ to their cause," hoping to sell their positions on economic issues with their portrayal of "Jesus Christ, socialist superstar." But it's all a smokescreen, because they know they've run afoul of church teachings on matters such as abortion, euthanasia, and gay marriage.

It's hard to believe society has sunk this low, said Eduardo Penalver in Commonweal. Let's hope the Conservative Bible Project turns out to be a hoax—it's certainly funny, whether it's "satire or simply authentic insanity." But "it’s a sad commentary on the state of our political discourse that it’s so hard to tell the two apart these days."