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Stephen Colbert wants to be Moses. AP Photo Matt Sayles
Stephen Colbert highlighted a story yesterday involving the Bible and conservatives. A group of conservatives has started a website called Conservapedia which attempts to model itself after the popular Wikipedia model while emphasizing conservative principles. Until recently the organization simply focused on providing a conservative slant on major issues and subjects. However Conservapedia started making headlines when they announced the "Conservative Bible Project" which attempts to rewrite the entire Bible according to conservative principles. Some guidelines from the Conservapedia website include:
identify pro-liberal terms used in existing Bible translations, such as "government", and suggest more accurate substitutes
identify the omission of liberal terms for vices, such as "gambling", and identify where they should be used
identify conservative terms that are omitted from existing translations, and propose where they could improve the translation
identify terms that have lost their original meaning, such as "word" in the beginning of the Gospel of John, and suggest replacements, such as "truth"
In the video below Colbert does performs his typical over-the-top conservative act by praising the Conservative Bible Project. Some of the more amusing quotes from the video include:
After all the Bible says Jesus fed the poor. It should have said he fed he rich and let the looves and fishes trickle down."
In the Bible it says 'The meek shall inherit the earth." Liberal clap trap. Clearly what Jesus meant was, 'The meek shall inherit the earth if we can repeal the federal estate tax. Seriously, 45% for estates over 3.5 million? Spareth me.'"
In the end of the segment Colbert urges his audience to go onto Conservapedia and insert him into the Bible. Colbert suggests he be made into Moses or even God.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Tip/Wag - Conservapedia, Louvre & Honda Unicycle | ||||
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Comments
I gotta admit... retranslating the Bible to remove percieved "Liberal" influences and then add in conservative ones... koo-koo!
But... this isn't a mainstream conservative thing.
I rate this right up there with the Libd trying to relabel taxes as "incentives" and "investments".
Doc
Be fun watching the "literal Bible" conservatives trying to reconcile this, tho.
It's true that it's not mainstream conservative. None but the most hardcore conservative (the ones who hate Obama more than they love Jesus) would try to edit the Bible, as more conservatives are Bible literalists than liberal interpreters - no pun intended.
Then again, Americans have been unusually stupid lately so you never know. I thought it might be possible that the tendency to equate conservative Americanism to Christianity would fade after Bush left office but I was obviously wrong about that one.
~ from a moderate pastor in the South, who thinks Colbert is genius and wishes she had the time to change all of the male pronouns in the Conservapedia Bible to the feminine, just for kicks:)
It makes one wonder how many times throughout history that the Bible has been altered.
@ah-tenn. Americans aren't stupider than any other group of people on the planet.
They're just a bit more closed minded...Unless you're speaking about the religious righties from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.
BGB - A LOT!
If you are really interested, look into the works of Bart Ehrman, a religious professor at UNC who has traced the Bible back through some of the earliest versions.
does this mean god's name will be changed to reagan?
Actually it sounds a LOT like many conservatives these days. They already act like the world is out to get them and denounce anything scholarly or reputable as "Liberal" and dismiss it. They're already committed to rewriting everything else to fit what they think should be true. They already pick and choose what parts of the Bible are relevant by whim. (see Leviticus)
This is just the next step in their cult-like attempt to replace all lines of information with ones reinforcing their increasingly delusional world view.
So (ahh _tenn), YOU sound well adjusted!!LOL
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