The [Redacted] Word of God

I suppose it says something about me that I remembered this story as being Stephen's "The Craziest F***ing Thing I've Ever Heard" segment until I looked it up.

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For the record, TCFTIEH segment this week was actually this story; it also says something about me that the story about expurgating the known liberal bias from the Bible seems crazier to me than using part of a tooth to restore vision.

Of course, what the Conservative Bible Project is actually talking about is creating a new version of the Bible. Instead of using the NIV or the KJV or whichever one you currently use, you'd have an alternative version in which Christ does not ask God to "forgive them for they know not what they do" as he is being crucified because that verse was inserted later (you think I'm kidding about this?). Apparently, the CBP will go back to what I'll call the original source material—the ancient Greek and Latin texts—to see what may have been "lost in translation" (my quotes). I can live with that—that involves something in the realm of scholarship: you have to at least be able to read ancient Greek or Latin, I would assume. What actually frightens me is the people who will, when they can't find a way to change something in the Bible to suit their desires, will announce that they've "prayed about it" and God told them what changes to make. I don't mock prayer: I decry those who make a mockery of it, as I believe that would do.

The Slacktivist, as usual, has an excellent, well-articulated post on the subject.

If the Flip-Flop Fits

From an article on the future of conservativism in today's Times:

For others, however, the nub of the problem is not deviance from the 1980s agenda but worshipful adherence to it. Mr. [David] Frum [of the conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute] is one of those who has undergone a conversion (or two). His book “Dead Right,” published in 1994, was a brisk catalog of Reagan’s failures (especially his failure to reduce the size of government). Then, after writing speeches for President Bush, Mr. Frum wrote “The Right Man,” in which he characterized President Bush’s leadership as “nothing short of superb.” But in his newest book, “Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again,” Mr. Frum confesses that his former boss has “led his party to the brink of disaster.”

How can you not admire a man with such steadfast adherence to his principles? Actually, in reading the article further, he has come around to several points regarding taxation and the role of government in society that I agree with whole-heartedly. So I say, "Kudos to you, Mr. Frum, for finally realizing that it doesn't matter how much we enrich ourselves if we're bankrupting the rest of the country!"