Introducing the new fangled..

...translation of the Bible. Yahoo posted a story about the introduction of the Today's New International Version of the Bible. As the story explains, there is controversy from some folk that the Bible shouldn't ever be updated in language. I guess it's like that old joke, "If the King James Version was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for us." Of course, the joke rests on the idea that Jesus spoke King James english when in fact he didn't. And we know that. Or some of us know that.

Anyways, I am quite fond of the New Living Translation. Go here, its the New Living Translation of Lamentations and its quite profound given the updated language. Read it and then go and read the King James Version of the same passage in Lamentations and see if the former makes more or less sense to you.

I remember ages ago a friend of mine fired his pastor in a church in Ohio because the pastor wanted to use the New International Version and a few members of the church wanted to use the King James Version. The pastor wouldn't back down and neither did the few members- they created a big ol' hoopla and ousted the pastor. Who'd've thunk that a Bible translation could cause such a stir?

For some folks, they get to majoring in the minor things and forget what we're on this earth for- to reach the lost, feed and comfort the sick, and love each other like crazy. I guess for those folks its easier (and less messy) to spend the energy on minor debates than it is to get one's hands dirty and care for the unfortunate.

But then, I have always wondered why the pastor was willing to "go down fighting" over a translation? A Christian comedian of my youth used to say, "When we spend our time doing the do's of God we won't have time to do the don'ts," and I'd like to add, "or waste our time over such trivial matters."