Do Unto Others...

... only what they have paid for you to do. - That seems to be the new golden rule.

My Honey frequently accuses me of being oblivious to world and national events. I guess it's true. Only recently has it come to my attention that there is a faction of the radical right which wants to rewrite the Bible.

It seems that they've come to the conclusion that all of the current available versions - most especially, the King James, the American Standard, the New International, and the Sacrada Biblia - were too heavily influenced by liberal viewpoints when they were assembled. Things like the original Golden Rule, the Good Samaritan, feeding the masses, free salvation, forgiveness, withholding judgement of others - behaviors we've been taught for generations were hallmarks of a Christian way of life - are all now under fire.

The new Christanity seems more disposed to encourage its adherents to adopt a "damn everything else, full speed ahead" attitude toward accomplishing one's social and economic objectives - except when it's someone else that stands to gain at one's own expense. Fair is not fair anymore. One is taught to expect good treatment from everyone else, while dispensing it only if it gains them some social or economic advantage, and traditional Christian values don't fit the paradigm.

Unfortunately for the new Christians, the traditional versions of the Bible don't lend much spiritual support to that approach to faith, so the answer, it appears, is to revise the Bible. I wonder what they'll eliminate... Will the four Gospels simply be discarded, or merely revised to fit the new morality? Will Jesus' own words be changed to reflect the ideas they want to hear, or will they be eliminated altogether? Apparently just ignoring them isn't really spiritually satisfyng.

For my part, I'm keeping my copy of the real Holy Bible in a safe place, so that somewhere down the road, those who want to know the truth about Christian ideals will be able to find it. This move to turn the Bible into a tool for justifying of the behavior and agenda of the radical right, is revisionist history at its worst.

Mariner