A group of maverick conservative Christians are attempting a new Bible translation in order to eliminate "liberal bias."

The Conservapedia website, a politically and religiously conservative alternative to the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is hosting the new translation. Already the project has invited scorn from theologians, linguists and cultural commentators across the world wide web.

Instead of returning to the original biblical languages of Hebrew and Koiné Greek, the Conservative Bible Project relies on a set of rules whose main principle is to rewrite the Bible in a way that reflects modern conservative political, economic, religious and moral values.

Among other aims, the translation will "restore" to Jesus' parables their "full free-market meaning," and "utilize powerful conservative terms," instead of liberal "corruptions," which Conservapedia says includes words such as "government" and "comrade."

The contributors – Conservapedia users for whom the only necessary qualification is their political ideology – admit they are willing to throw out Bible passages that do not fit their conservative paradigm.

"When it first started, it was difficult to tell if it was an authentic conservative phenomenon or a parody along the lines of The Colbert Report," Professor James F McGrath of Butler University, Indianapolis, wrote in the Christian Science Monitor last week. "The meaning of words in the underlying languages is simply ignored, and the "translators" make clear that their interest is to make the English text mean what they believe a conservative Bible ought to mean."

Conservapedia has high hopes for the translation, claiming it will "debunk the pervasive and hurtful myth that Jesus would be a political liberal today," and be of "immeasurable value to society." Given the widespread derision it has received from academics, however, the Conservative Bible Project is unlikely to find respect beyond its own users.

13 December 2009