New Bible drops gender-neutral language of ’05 version
The world’s best-selling Bible is getting an upgrade.
At stake are millions of dollars in publishing revenue and the trust of millions of churchgoers.
Since its debut in 1978, the New International Version — known as the NIV — has been the Bible of choice for evangelicals, selling more copies than any other version. But a 2005 gender-inclusive edition bombed after being condemned as too liberal.
Translators hope their latest edition, which debuted online this month, will avoid a similar fate. They’ve retained some of the language of the 2005 edition. But they also made changes — like going back to using words like “mankind” and “man” instead of “human beings” and “people” — in order to appease critics.
It’s available for preview at BibleGateway.com, with print versions expected in March.
Wheaton College Bible scholar Doug Moo, head of the translation committee, said the group tried to create an accurate English Bible without ticking off readers.
Low incomes make poor more conservative, study finds
You might think that in a time when more money is concentrated in fewer hands and incomes vary wildly from billions to subsistence, poor people might increase their support for government policies that offer some help.
Not in America.
New research findings add complexity to the basic assumption that humans act in their own economic self-interest. By analyzing hundreds of survey questions from 1952 to 2006, Peter Enns, assistant professor of government, and Nathan Kelly of the University of Tennessee found that as inequality rises, low income individuals’ attitudes toward redistribution become more conservative. Their paper appears in the October issue of the American Journal of Political Science.
“It’s a bit of a conundrum,” Enns admits.
Nashville church fights $425,000 tax bill
A South Nashville megachurch facing a $425,000 property tax bill is fighting the assessment on its gym, bookstore and cafe.
The Tennessee State Board of Equalization, which decides tax exemptions for churches, contends those are commercial enterprises, so the portion of church property they occupy can be taxed.
The 2,300-member Christ Church insists that’s an outdated view of how churches operate, and those enterprises should be considered part of ministerial outreach.
“They think a church worships on Sunday and then everybody goes away,” pastor Dan Scott said. “Anything else you do is not church. But Christianity is not something you dive into once a week.”
But the question of who can decide which parts of a church are religious and secular is drawing national attention, with some calling it a First Amendment issue. Christ Church shut down its cafe and bookstore and handed off its gym to the YMCA of Middle Tennessee this year as the dispute dragged on, moves meant to keep the tax bill from increasing.