Bible Verses: Insulted by the Word
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York: Fowler v. Zondervan;
Fowler v. Thomas Nelson
In the King James Bible, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says this:
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
The New International Version (NIV) translates the same verse this way:
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Bradley LaShawn Fowler, who is gay, does not appreciate the translations which identify homosexuals among the sinners who will not inherit the Kingdom of God. So he did what any offended individual has a right to do: He sued the publishers of the Bible. Referring to this translation as a “malicious conspiracy” Fowler claims it has destroyed relationships with his family and caused him all sorts of mental anguish including loss of self esteem and bewilderment. He is seeking $70 million dollars in damages in the two lawsuits.
It used to be that if you didn’t like what the Bible said, you either ignored it or disparaged it. But times have changed. There seems to be a movement to silence those with whom we disagree and the courts are often the vehicle used to accomplish the task. If, as Mr. Fowler hopes, one man can censor the Bible’s reference to homosexuality (one wonders if Mr. Fowler will be filing separate actions over Romans 1:26-27 and Leviticus 20:13), then liars, adulterers, thieves, drunks and other aggrieved readers may well follow suit. Who knows, if Fowler’s lawsuits are permitted to proceed, he may cause a revival as other potential litigants search the scriptures for verses that offend their sensibilities, only to find their salvation.
We used to cherish the market place of ideas where we battled each other with thoughts and words and trusted that the most worthy and profound ideas would rise to the top, persuade us of their value and elevate our society. That is what made America great. We let every one have his say, no matter how absurd, no matter how silly, no matter how divisive. Juxtaposed against the profound, the wise and the loving, the former ideas just couldn’t withstand scrutiny or analysis and in the end were rejected. Now, it seems, we have lost some of our confidence in our fellow citizen's ability to choose wisely, and instead look to the courts to shut the mouths of the other side and to claim that our right to be free of offense is greater than the freedom to speak we claim to cherish.
There’s something offensive about all this that can make you want to scream. Which is, after all, our right.
