You know who else changed the bible to fit political ideology? Hitler.

I wish the parallel between the Conservative Bible Project and Hitler’s third reich editing the bible for political aim was a joke.

Nazi Germany decided to make Jesus Aryan and Paul a despicable jew to create more religious strife and overall acceptance for eugenics, i.e. the holocaust.  Hitler referred to this more “accurate” representation in his speeches several times to give weight to belief that the jewish race was inferior.

It’s doubtful that the folks behind this new editing agenda are keen to build a case to kill liberals - but the sinister connotations of editing the bible for political and ideological gain can not be missed.

One could choose to dismiss this ‘editing the bible in your own image makes you like Hitler’ argument. The Conservative Bible Project could honestly wish to edit the bible for a more accurate representation. Or not. Even Thomas Jefferson took a pair of scissors to the new testament and left out anything that wasn’t to his liking. Most senators swear on a version of the Jefferson bible today. Jefferson did not kill others using his reinterpreted bible as moral guidance.

Another problem exists with claiming that this translation project has anything to do with accuracy. Having pre-conceived ideas of what the result would be ultimately taints the translation’s purity. Reputable bibical scholars strive for impartiality and acknowledge where their translation could be skewed.

It appears that the creators of this website have political motivations and have not talked to an expert in biblical translation. Academia is, after all, liberal.

It’s amusing to read on their website how they plan to go back to the original sources and plan to find more conservatism there. People four hundred years ago are not comparable to modern-day liberals. Assuming that they are is worth a chuckle.

What they’ll find when they go back to the original sources is that indeed, those old guys translating the King James Version of the bible were fairly conservative. They went back to the original sources and found Jesus more liberal and human than they preferred.

For example, see the Matthew virgin prophecy fulfillment error. Some modern translations willfully retain that error to make sure Jesus was born a virgin and fulfilled a prophecy. These translations are already inaccurate and conservative.

Translating the bible to fit ideology is wrong. They won’t find a more conservative Jesus by going to the sources. Jesus was not conservative. He shook the entire Jewish and Roman establishment upside down. He demanded social justice. Just like people wishing to promote religious peace remind everyone that christian anti-semitism doesn’t make sense with the slogan ‘Jesus was a Jew’ so too liberals ought to have slogan ‘Jesus was a Liberal’. Or perhaps they already have with ‘Pontius Pilate was a governor, Jesus was a community organizer’ comparing conservative then-governor Palin with President Obama.

Misunderstanding the bible does not end with conservatives however. Too often liberals toss out the bible believing it full of lies or myth that has no relevance to their daily lives. They refuse to look beyond traditional interpretations and see for themselves if the bible has any worth for them, confusing the deliverers of the bible as the message of the bible. Objectivity on both sides of the political spectrum could serve this painfully divided country well.