Evangelicals rewrote *the Bible* on abortion in the 1970s for their political purposes.

[sharedvalues]

Before evangelical Christian dominionists rewrote the Bible in the 1970s, a fetus was not seen as equal to an adult woman. They changed the Bible for their political purposes.

GOP Christians' whole story that life begins immediately after sex is a total lie. The whole abortion debate is a total religious charade.


http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/03/22/mischief-follows-in-partisan-bible-translations/
(Article from 2012, but applicable today.)

The New American Standard Bible translated this passage that same way up until 1977. But something changed between 1977 and 1995 — something that had nothing to do with scholarship, language, accuracy, fidelity or readability.

American politics had changed between 1977 and 1995. It had polarized and radicalized millions of American Protestants, rallying them around a single issue and thus, as intended, rallying them behind a single political party.

In 1977, the sort of American Protestants who purchased most Bibles couldn’t be summed up in a single word. But by 1995, they could be: “abortion.”

And for anti-abortion American evangelicals, Exodus 21:12-27 was unacceptable. It suggested that striking and killing an unborn fetus was in a separate category from striking and killing a “person.” Strike and kill a free person, you get the death penalty. Strike and kill an unborn fetus, you get a fine.

And so in 1995, like those earlier translators who invented and inserted “Junias,” the translators of the NASB reshaped this passage. “She has a miscarriage, yet there is not further injury” would, in consideration of the changes in American politics since 1977, henceforth be transformed into “she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury.”

Politics — specifically, the political desire to control women — shaped the translation of that text. The translators changed the words of the Bible to make it seem like it supported their political agenda. They changed the words of the Bible so that others reading it would not be able to see that its actual words challenged and contradicted their political agenda.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

1. ala

The Handmaidens Tale etc.

[Docreed2003]

2. It has always simultaneously amused and befuddled me

That there are those in the Christian sects that will only accept the KJV of the Bible as the "True Word"

How ridiculous!! (One only has to research the development of that version of the Bible to see how ridiculous that argument is)

Similarly, the modern attempts to change meanings based on political agendas is just as ridiculous.

But what do I know...I was chastised too many times as a child and teenager for asking probing questions in Sunday School!

[SCantiGOP]

10. The King James bible was a rewrite

To emphasize that the bible required people to obey their masters. In the case of England, it was to tell the peasants that they were biblically required to obey the aristocrats.

[Qutzupalotl]

3. Right. It seems self-evident

that independent, distinct life begins at birth and ends at death. Or if you prefer, first breath to last breath — essentially the same thing. Medical records and tombstones list the birth date, not the conception date. That would be weird. So it's widely accepted already that life is birth to death, not formation of the body to — what would be the opposite? decomposition?

[Sophia4]

4. The kinds of people who condemn abortion are the kinds of people who burned

witches.

Women who need or choose to have abortions in most cases don't make their choice based on a whim. There is some problem that causes them to make that choice. Their problem may be social in that they feel that they cannot support the child the fetus will become or it may be physical -- that they cannot safely carry a baby to term.

Only a small percentage of women get abortions. It is easy to single them out and treat them like witches. This is especially true for men who do not know how difficult pregnancy and raising a baby can really be for women.

Now the anti-abortion movement, that is the real witch-hunt.

If people don't want elective abortions that are not based on medical problems, they should offer to help pregnant women who feel they cannot support a baby for some reason (such as being too young to have a child).

[keithbvadu2]

13. "for men who do not know how difficult pregnancy and raising a baby can really be for women."

[KT2000]

5. I have heard of two people now

who when they got dementia, made it their purpose in life to rewrite the bible. Maybe they were trying to reconcile what they knew were contradictions. Always puzzled me why someone would do that.

[safeinOhio]

6. Up until then divorce was the rallying cry....

Then along came Reagan, who was divorced and signed into law the California No-fault divorce law. Then abortion became the rally cry.

[Lint Head]

7. Revelations 22:19

and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

[Nitram]

8. Biblical scholars have long known that those who wrote the Bible did not consider an unborn fetus

to be a person. Interesting that American evangelicals did what people have been doing to the bible for millennia: changed it to suit their political purposes.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Abortion became their number one concern and then they added LGBT rights.

Seems like they don't find much to satisfy them in Jesus' teachings.

[phylny]

15. When I interact with someone who argues that homosexuality

is a sin, my follow-up question is, "So you are in favor of outlawing divorce, then, right? It should be illegal, correct?"

Stops them and makes them sputter every time.

[stuffmatters]

11. This is really important info,mind blowing actually. Doubt many lay people know this.

[JayhawkSD]

12. Exodus is in the Old Testament.

The story of Christ, and the foundation of the Christian religion, is the New Testament.

Interestingly, those "Christians" who preach damnation of gays, and rail against abortion, invariably cite the Old Testament as their authority for doing so. They do that because there is nothing in the New Testament, nothing whatever in the teachings of Christ, which bears out their position.

I had one such person tell me that he was "an Old Testament Christian." I didn't bother to argue with him. There was no point in trying to, based on one of my favorite aphorisms. "Never argue with idiots. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience."

[keithbvadu2]

14. This article on Patheos has some great comments.

I have found many times that a series of comments actually tell more information and understanding than the article does.

You have to get past the 'stupid vs stupid' name calling.