by Mary Ann McGivern
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This is old news, but worth sharing. It’s an account by Richard Schiffman that ran on Alternet in December 2013.
It seems that Andy Schlafly, son of Phyllis Schlafly, is the founder of the web site Conservapedia. One of Conservapedia’s tasks is the rewriting of the Bible, or at least the editing of it. Andy Schlafly and his cohorts are deleting suspect verses and replacing words with a socialist ring to them with close-enough synonyms that recast the meaning to be more in keeping with a capitalist ethos.
Schiffman wrote:
Take that story where the mob surrounds a woman accused of adultery and gets ready to stone her, but Jesus intervenes and says, ‘He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone’ (John 7:53-8:11). It might have been a later addition that wasn’t in the original Gospels, according to some right-thinking, or rather right-leaning scholars. So the editors have excised this bleeding-heart favorite from the Good Book, and they've also removed Jesus’ words on the cross, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’
‘The simple fact is that some of the persecutors of Jesus did know what they were doing,’ Schlafly points out, proving that, ‘Jesus might never had said it at all.’
Another thing Jesus might never have said at all is, ‘Blessed are the meek.’ Change that one to, ‘Blessed are the God-fearing,’ the translation’s editors advise, which is far less touchy-feely than the King James Version.
Schiffman had lots more to say, and Conservapedia’s own description of the Bible Project and its guidelines are eye-opening to say the least.
