Removing "father" & "son" from bible

[AD6LR]

http://news.yahoo.com/father-son-ousted ... 00519.html


A controversy is brewing over three reputable Christian organizations, which are based in North America, whose efforts have ousted the words "Father" and "Son" from new Bibles. Wycliffe Bible Translators, Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and Frontiers are under fire for "producing Bibles that remove "Father," "Son" and "Son of God" because these terms are offensive to Muslims."
Concerned Christian missionaries, Bible translators, pastors, and national church leaders have come together with a public petition to stop these organizations. They claim a public petition is their last recourse because meetings with these organizations' leaders, staff resignations over this issue and criticism and appeals from native national Christians concerned about the translations "have failed to persuade these agencies to retain "Father" and "Son" in the text of all their translations."
Biblical Missiology, a ministry of Boulder, Colorado-based Horizon International, is sponsoring the petition.
The main issues of this controversy surround new Arabic and Turkish translations. Here are three examples native speakers give:
First, Wycliffe and SIL have produced Stories of the Prophets, an Arabic Bible that uses an Arabic equivalent of "Lord" instead of "Father" and "Messiah" instead of "Son."
Second, Frontiers and SIL have produced Meaning of the Gospel of Christ , an Arabic translation which removes "Father" in reference to God and replaces it with "Allah," and removes or redefines "Son." For example, the verse which Christians use to justify going all over the world to make disciples, thus fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) reads, "Cleanse them by water in the name of Allah, his Messiahand his Holy Spirit" instead of "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Rev. Bassam Madany, an Arab American who runs Middle East Resources, terms these organization's efforts as "a western imperialistic attempt that's inspired by cultural anthropology, and not by biblical theology."
Third, Frontiers and SIL have produced a new Turkish translation of the Gospel of Matthew that uses Turkish equivalents of "guardian" for "Father" and "representative" or "proxy" for "Son." To Turkish church leader Rev. Fikret Böcek, "This translation is 'an all-American idea' with absolutely no respect for the 'sacredness' of Scripture, or even of the growing Turkish church."
SIL has issued a public response stating "all personnel subscribe to a statement of faith which affirms the Trinity, Christ's deity, and the inspiration of Scripture." However, in the same statement, which is similar to Wycliffe's, it claims "word-for-word translation of these titles would communicate an incorrect meaning (i.e. that God had physical, sexual relationships with Mary) [sic]," thus justifying substituting "Father" and "Son" in new translations. Calls and emails to Wycliffe and SIL to clarify their positions were not returned. Frontiers responded to calls with articles that critics have already dismissed as skirting omissions of "Father" and "Son" in new Bible translations.

[zilch]

Hmmm. Is this political correctness, or imperialism, on the part of the Christians? Maybe both?

In any case, God did have sex with Mary, at least in the biological sense: He impregnated her- exactly how, we'll never know, unless we repent and ask God in Heaven how He managed it. That is, unless Aslan and Tash are the same, and God is not the father of Jesus.

[Azou]

Alright, someone get God on Maury.

[Milo]

Love the Narnia reference!

[zilch]

Yeah, the Narnia books are great, if you can accept the Christian overtones, which get distractingly loud towards the end. Lewis was a wonderful storyteller.

[Milo]

The Narnia series was one of my very favorite set of books growing up. I will still occasionally go back and reread them although it is hard now to ignore the sexist, racist overtones. The funny part is that evangelicals adore C.S. Lewis even though he had many heretic ideas. It is interesting how Christians assume atheists have never read C. S. Lewis. I have read books of his that they didn't even know existed. I have read all of his fiction (that I know of) and most of his apologetic works.

[zilch]

The Narnia series was one of my very favorite set of books growing up. I will still occasionally go back and reread them although it is hard now to ignore the sexist, racist overtones. The funny part is that evangelicals adore C.S. Lewis even though he had many heretic ideas. It is interesting how Christians assume atheists have never read C. S. Lewis. I have read books of his that they didn't even know existed. I have read all of his fiction (that I know of) and most of his apologetic works.

Yep- Lewis was certainly a product of his time and upbringing, and the sexism and racism goes with that. But he had a gift for telling stories entertainingly, and for believable characters- much more human than Tolkien's epic heroes. And you're right- Lewis would certainly count as heretical to fundies, for instance with his saying that even worshipers of Tash (obviously Allah) go to Aslan's Home (Christian Heaven) if they are true and good. That's just too wishywashy for "real" Christians.