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The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text. The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship, it was announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011.

The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text. The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship, it was announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011. "We want to reach English speakers across the globe with a Bible that is accurate, accessible and that speaks to its readers...

PENTAGON BURNS OUR SOLDIERS BIBLES BREAKING NEWS: Pentagon Burns Soldiers Bibles - Military Chaplains Attacked BY CHAPLAIN GORDON JAMES KLINGENSCHMITT, UPDATED 5 JULY 09 A Pentagon spokesman under the Obama Administration recently acknowledged and defended seizing and burning the privately owned Bibles of American soldiers serving in Afghanistan. The Bibles had been printed in the local Pashto and Dari languages, and sent by private donors last year (under the Bush Administration) to American Christian soldiers and chaplains, for distribution to American troops on overseas military bases during optionally-attended Christian worship services. Had the Bibles not been recently seized and destroyed...

Brian and Doris Johnson have passed out free Bibles at the Twin Cities Pride Festival for 11 years, but this year their free gifts got them arrested. After being told they couldn't have a booth at this year's festival, the family came anyway and ended up behind bars for trespassing. The Pride Festival started Saturday in Loring Park and is considered the third-largest GLBT celebration in the nation. Since the festival rented out the entire park, police said they could choose which vendors to allow in the park. The Johnsons are born-again Christians and believe homosexuality is a sin. Pride...

BEIJING – By all accounts, Shi Weihan was a model Chinese citizen. A kind-hearted man with a sense of social responsibility, he donated funds to send poor kids to school, raised money for those suffering from congenital heart disease, and when the Sichuan earthquake hit, worked tirelessly for the emergency relief effort. But Shi had a fatal flaw. He printed Bibles – and gave them out for free. This week a criminal court in Beijing sentenced him to three years in jail.

On May 4, Al Jazeera English ran a report suggesting that U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan may have been violating anti-proselytizing rules by distributing Dari-and Pashto-language New Testament Bibles. Central Command General Order No. 1 specifically forbids “proselytizing of any faith, religion or practice.” The footage came from documentary filmmaker Brian Hughes The report showed a service from approximately a year ago, with the head U.S. military chaplain in Afghanistan, Lt. Colonel Gary Hensley, talking about the need to spread the Gospel. "The special forces guys -- they hunt men basically," Hensley said. "We do the same things as Christians, we...

CBNNews.com - The U.S. military says some Bibles in Afghanistan have been confiscated and destroyed, Reuters reported. Their decision to destroy them came after Al Jazeera television showed U.S. soldiers at a Bible class with a stack of Bibles translated into the local languages.It's illegal to proselytize in Afghanistan and military officials forbid troops to convert Afghans to Christianity.The military says the Bibles were brought to the Bible class by an Evangelical Christian solider who received them from his home church.

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeera television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty -- including those based in places like Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion. Reuters quotes Maj. Jennifer Willis at the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, who said "I can now confirm...

The U.S. military has confirmed that it has "destroyed" some Bibles belonging to an American soldier in Afghanistan. "Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. " "The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty -- including those based in places like Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion." But I thought they said we needed to change "hearts and minds" over there?

Iraq Government Wants U.S. Troops Out by June 30 [2009-05-04]. (This is the title of the story but as you can see has nothing to do with the actual article) Arlington, VA -- The U.S. Military said that reports from Al Jazeera English that evangelical Christian soldiers in Afghanistan handed out Bibles to local Afghans and operated under instructions from their chaplain to "hunt people for Jesus" grossly misrepresent the truth and that in reality Bibles were confiscated, not handed out. The Al Jazeera broadcast includes a video taken a year ago in which a small group of U.S. Soldiers...

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages.

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty -- including those based in places like Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion. Reuters quotes Maj. Jennifer Willis at the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, who said "I can now confirm...

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2009 – A report broadcast by the Arab news network Al Jazeera about U.S. servicemembers proselytizing in Afghanistan is just plain wrong, Pentagon officials said today. The Al Jazeera story showed an evangelical religious service on Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan and a discussion about distributing Bibles that had been translated into Dari and Pashtu – the two major languages of Afghanistan. “American servicemembers are allowed to hold religious services,” a Defense Department official speaking on background said. “The clip shows one of those services with an American chaplain leading a religious service for American servicemembers. In it,...

A Southwest Florida man who in past years has been allowed to distribute free Bibles to high school students on Religious Freedom Day was turned down this year by the district's superintendent. Jerry Rutherford, president of World Changers, appeared before the Collier County School Board on Thursday to ask for a reversal of the decision but received the same response. "This rejection is a slap in the face," said Rutherford, according to Naples News. "The decision to deny access to community groups that are religious in nature is censorship and bias." In November, Rutherford routinely submitted his request to set...

You want change? McCain decided to offer you REAL change we can believe in! McCain is nothing if not unpredictable! Only hours after the Hollywood made for TV DNC pander fest ended, confirming Barack Hussein Obama as the first multiracial candidate for the executive branch, Republican John McCain upstaged lefties by announcing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Four members of a Christian group from the United States are refusing to leave an airport in China after authorities confiscated their 300 Bibles, the group's director said Monday. The four members of Vision Beyond Borders -- based in Sheridan, Wyoming -- arrived in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming on Sunday. Customs officials discovered the Bibles during an X-ray scan of their luggage, said Pat Klein, director of the group, which supplies Bibles and other Christian material to people in China and other countries. Under Chinese law, it is illegal to bring printed religious material...

Chinese customs officials confiscated more than 300 Bibles on Sunday from four American Christians who arrived in a southwestern city with plans to distribute them, the group's leader said. --snip-- "I heard that there's freedom of religion in China, so why is there a problem for us to bring Bibles?" Klein said. "We had over 300 copies and customs took all of them from us."

Christian groups are appealing a federal judge's ruling that bars the Gideons from distributing Bibles to students of the South Iron Missouri School District. The South Iron School District allows off-campus organizations to distribute literature to students before and after school, and during other non-instructional times such as lunch breaks. But the American Civil Liberties Union sued, saying the Gideons should not be allowed to hand out Bibles because of their religious nature. U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry agreed. "In fact, the federal judge said...the ACLU must be able to have the say-so over whether religious literature can be distributed...

A new plant can turn out 12 million copies a year. Some are for export, but most are for domestic sale. The factory looks like it could be any plant in this export-driven nation. Hundreds of Chinese workers huddle over loud machines churning out large orders for customers at home and abroad. But what they're making might surprise you: Bibles. As Tibetan monks grab headlines protesting the lack of religious freedom under Chinese rule, a booming Bible industry is on its way to turning the world's biggest atheist nation into the world's largest producer of the Good Book. Chairman Mao...

Some of you may be aware of my recent thread about Bible translation preferences. On that thread that I was introduced to a freeware Bible study program called eSword. It is available here at no cost (Windows only). It comes with the King James Version and Strongs built in, but seems to be unbelievably expandable.For instance, I have added to mine: The Douay-Rheims Challoner BibleHaydock's Commentaries (in a rough "0.2" work-in-progress form)The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1899The Catechism of the Catholic ChurchThe Baltimore CatechismSumma Theologicae...and probably is still more out there that I've yet to find. I'm focusing on public domain...

The Pocket Testament League is celebrating 100 years of incredible ministry in the United States. Founded in England in 1893, the ministry opened its first US office in Pennsylvania in April, 1908. Described by 'the Sunday School Times' in 1920 as "the greatest movement of God since the 14th Century," the League has a mission to mobilize and equip Christians to Read, Carry, and Share the Word of God. Since opening in its first office in Philadelphia in 1908, over 8 million people have pledged to read the Bible daily, to carry pocket-sized Scripture everywhere they go, and to share...

The authors of the books discussed in this year’s survey are senior scholars who have distinguished themselves through many years of teaching and lecturing, original contributions to biblical research and proven ability to communicate their learning to the general public. Their recent publications offer reliable and accessible points of entry to important areas within the biblical field. What do today’s biblical scholars do? What should they do? In The Nature of Biblical Criticism (Westminster John Knox), John Barton, professor of the interpretation of holy Scripture at Oxford University, contends that the main task of biblical criticism is to read texts...

Church official worries country is becoming less tolerant of other religions KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysian customs officials seized 32 Bibles from a traveler, a church federation said Monday, adding its voice to a raft of complaints that the Muslim-majority country is becoming less tolerant of other religions. The Royal Malaysian Customs department, however, said it was only trying to determine if the Bibles were imported for commercial purposes. Custom officials at an airport in Kuala Lumpur took the Bibles from a Malaysian woman Jan. 28 on her return from the Philippines, according to the Rev. Hermen Shastri, general secretary...

FAYETTEVILLE — School officials in Cumberland and Harnett counties who have banned organizations from offering Bibles to elementary students may want to beef up their studies of Constitutional case law and reconsider their decisions. "In their efforts to appease the American Civil Liberties Union, these eastern North Carolina school systems are violating citizens' First Amendment rights to free speech and failing to acknowledge a 2001 Supreme Court ruling," said Christian Action League Executive Director Rev. Mark Creech. The Cumberland County Public Schools notified elementary principals Nov. 19 to prohibit Bibles or other "poselytizing texts" from being handed out, citing a...

In the rooms of Manhattan's trendy Soho Grand Hotel guests can enjoy an eclectic selection of underground music, iPod docking stations, flat-screen TVs and even the living company of a complimentary goldfish. But, alas, the word of God is nowhere to be found. Unlike traditional hotels, the 10-year-old boutique has never put Bibles in its guest rooms, because "society evolves," says hotel spokeswoman Lori DeBlois. Providing Bibles would mean the hotel "would have to take care of every guest's belief." What might be surprising to many Americans is that the Bible-free room isn't a development just in hip New York...

Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel libraries. The chaplains were directed by the Bureau of Prisons to clear the shelves of any books, tapes, CDs and videos that are not on a list of approved resources. In some prisons, the chaplains have recently dismantled libraries that had thousands of texts collected over decades, bought by the prisons or donated by churches and religious groups. Some inmates are outraged. Two of them, a Christian and an Orthodox Jew,...

Last week, after an investigation spurred by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, the Pentagon abruptly announced that it would not be delivering "freedom packages" to our soldiers in Iraq, as it had originally intended. What were the packages to contain? Not body armor or home-baked cookies. Rather, they held Bibles, proselytizing material in English and Arabic and the apocalyptic computer game "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" (derived from the series of post-Rapture novels), in which "soldiers for Christ" hunt down enemies who look suspiciously like U.N. peacekeepers. The packages were put together by a fundamentalist Christian ministry called Operation Straight Up,...

PFC Brendan Schweigart was helping to retrieve a tank in Iraq when he felt as if he had been hit with a sledge hammer. It was deadly fire from an enemy sniper. But this day called up a miracle for the young soldier who believes in God and the teachings of the Bible. According to a report by NBC affiliate WGRZ, the bullet missed Schweigart's vital organs because over his heart was a Bible. Scott says it's the one he got at boot camp. The Bible acted as a shield, that trapped the bullet. He had promised his mother that...

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Everything from detergent to computer discs is packaged with the Sunday newspaper. So why not Bibles? A Christian ministry wants to deliver custom-designed New Testaments to newspaper subscribers around the country as part of an effort to find innovative ways to spread a Christian message. But even in the Bible Belt, not everyone thinks that's a good idea. International Bible Society-Send the Light is planning on spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to distribute Bibles with 11 newspapers during 2007 and 2008. New Testaments would be packaged in pouches on the outside of newspapers, much...

All praise to the Father for His provision and protection. The China missions trip went well and seeds were sown far and wide. Below are three notes from team members. The first two are from my sons, Caleb and Christian and the last is from this years team leader. There are many stories I could share and will be happy to do so as we speak face to face. I have heard numerous stories of Yah's faithfulness in answering specific prayers that were lifted up in the States at the exact moment they were needed most. Friends waking up in...

Mary Harwell Sayler   Other Articles by Mary Harwell SaylerPrinter Friendly Version   Glimpsing Words, Practices, or Beliefs Unique to Catholicism April 10, 2007 Question: Are there specific Catholic beliefs in the books (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 and 2 Maccabees, the last six chapters of Esther and three passages of Daniel 3:24-90; 13; 14) that Protestant Bibles don't contain? Maybe that's why non-Catholics ask "where is that in the Bible?" because it's not in theirs?Discussion: Yes, deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament of Catholic Bibles contain some passages that influence various practices or beliefs. However, early Christians and...

Unmasking the Divine on Purim.Nineteen years ago, during my first month living in Israel, I was riding a bus up Jerusalem's main thoroughfare, Jaffa Road. The bus stopped for a red light, and I gazed out the window. I saw an elderly, overweight woman trudging up the hill, schlepping many large bags. A beggar was sitting on the pavement, his hand outstretched. The old woman stopped, set her bags down, one at a time, on the sidewalk, rummaged through her purse, took out her wallet, and handed a coin to the beggar. At that point, the light changed and my...

ST. LOUIS - A federal judge ordered a small-town school to suspend a program that gives free Bibles to students, saying it improperly promotes Christianity. U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Perry also scolded school officials for continuing the program after warnings that it violated the Constitution. South Iron Elementary in Annapolis, a town of 300 in southeastern Missouri, has quietly allowed Gideons International to hand out Bibles to fifth-graders for years. After concerns were raised last year, the then-superintendent consulted with the district's attorneys and insurance company and recommended that the handouts stop, but the school board voted to continue...

Back in the saddle again The Pony Express returns to Wyoming By Becky Orr rep6@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle When Stanley Bean led Apache into a gallop, the pair came close to making the 21st century disappear. Cars and the semi-trailers that sped past them on U.S. Highway 26 near Torrington took a back seat to the rhythmic thud when Apache's hooves sank into the damp grass alongside the road. Bean, 59, has worked in ranching for 40 years. He lives in Riverton and was one of the riders in this year's Pony Express re-ride. On a hazy Tuesday...

Archaic Words in the NIVAdapted from, Archaic Words in the NIV by Dr. Laurence M. Vance featured at Dial the-Truth Ministries Website   NIV BIBLE VERSE AV abasement Ezra 9:5 heaviness abashed Is 24:23 confounded abutted Ezek 40:18 over against acclamation 2 Chr 15:14 voice aghast Is 13:8 amazed alcove Ezek 40:13 little chamber annotations 2 Chr 13:22 story armless Num 31:50 chains bewilderment Acts 2:6 confounded blunted Ps 58:7 cut in pieces blustering Job 8:2 strong breakers Ps 93:4 waves brooches Ex 35:22 bracelets brood Is 57:4 children burnished Dan 10:6 polished carnelian Rev 4:3 sardine charioteers I...

THE Howard Government says it wants another 600 spies, but it sure won't be hiring people as dumb as you. Reckon I've sold your brains short? Then sit this quick test, Sherlock, which I've drawn up using real cases from the past month. Which two of the following three things are so obviously dangerous that they've just been banned? And which one was this week declared safe for distribution? Exhibit A: Free Bibles placed by Gideons International in the bedside cupboards of public hospitals. Exhibit B: A jokey TV commercial in which Wogs Out of Work's George Kapiniaris complains about...

Meet Randy Brinson, the advance guard of evangelicals leaving the GOP. -snip- The newly converted are the most zealous, sharing the good news with gusto to any and all comers. Every few days, Randy Brinson calls me with another revelation. Republicans? “The power structure in the Republican Party is too entrenched with big business. It's not with evangelicals—they're a means to an end.” The Christian Right? “They just want to keep the culture war going because it raises a lot of money for them.” Abramoff? “Evangelicals were being used as pawns to promote a big money agenda.” His fellow evangelicals?...

A British airline banned its staff from taking Bibles and wearing crucifixes or St. Christopher medals on flights to Saudi Arabia to avoid offending the country's Muslims. British Midland International also has told female flight attendants they must walk two paces behind male colleagues and cover themselves from head to foot in a headscarf and robe known as an abaya, the Mirror newspaper of London reported. Teddy bears or other cuddly toys also are not allowed. Airline officials, who have sparked outrage, the paper says, explain the Islamic kingdom's strict laws – enforced by religious police – prohibit public practice...

In order not to offend the religion of peace and tolerance, an airline that flies to Saudi Arabia is banning Bibles, crucifixes, and teddy bears. Women also have to walk two paces behind their male colleagues and cover themselves from head to toe. It’s interesting how Islam is always given a pass when they degrade women and are intolerant of other religions. A British airline banned its staff from taking Bibles and wearing crucifixes or St. Christopher medals on flights to Saudi Arabia to avoid offending the country’s Muslims. British Midland International also has told female flight attendants they must...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - A group of atheists at the University of Texas at San Antonio was asking students to exchange bibles for porn magazines Wednesday and that has made some religious leaders angry, according to a report by San Antonio TV station WOAI-TV. At a Wednesday night church service, The Bible is the bond between believers, but on the University of Texas at San Antonio campus a group of students were calling scripture - smut. “We consider The Bible to be a very negative force in the history of the world,” student Ryan Walker told WOAI-TV. He is part...

Religious persecution in China has reached the point that distributing Bibles is earning a three-year prison sentence. Cai Zhuohua, 34, a Beijing underground church leader, was sentenced yesterday to three years in prison for distributing Bibles and other Christian materials. His wife, Xiao Yunfei, got two years, and her brother Xiao Gaowen was sentenced to 18 months by the Haidian Lower People's Court in Beijing. They were arrested September 2004, said the China Aid Association of Midland, Texas. They were accused of distributing 200,000 Bibles and other materials as part of an unregistered house church Mr. Cai oversaw for 10...

Two Gideons International representatives were in the Robert S. Payne Elementary School cafeteria Friday alongside a table of small red Bibles. The two men had permission to be there from Lynchburg City Schools. Superintendent Paul McKendrick said city school policy requires students to give the Gideons representative a form signed by a parent before they can accept a Bible. Gideons representatives were scheduled to visit fifth-graders at Payne, Heritage, Sandusky and Perrymont elementary schools Friday, according to a school activity and events calendar posted on the Lynchburg City Schools Web site. The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union...

EDINBURGH University is set to ban Bibles from its student halls of residence amid concern that the Holy Book is “discriminatory” and makes students of other faiths feel unwelcome. The move is the result of protests from the students’ association and is being considered in an effort to pursue a policy of “evenly supporting all faiths”, a university spokesman said yesterday. A Gideon Bible is traditionally placed in every new student’s room at the start of the academic year and there are currently around 2,000 Bibles in the Pollock Halls campus on the edge of Holyrood Park. Their distribution is...

Prisoners in Zimbabwe's main remand prison are forced to use pages from the Bible as toilet paper, an opposition lawmaker said on Friday. Opposition lawmaker Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga made the remarks following a trip she made to Harare Remand Prison with other members of a parliamentary committee. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) lawmaker confirmed press reports that inmates at the notorious holding cells are forced to tear out pages from Bibles inside their cells to use as a substitute for toilet paper. "Prisoners sometimes use blankets to clean themselves. But that's the level of desperation. The Bible is the only...

Hospital bosses in Britain are considering moving Bibles from patients’ bedsides because of concerns about offending non-Christians and spreading the superbug MRSA, it emerged today. They will meet tomorrow to discuss whether the tradition of placing copies of the Bible in people's bedside lockers should continue at Leicester’s three main hospitals. The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust is worried that the Gideons testaments could offend people from other faith groups who are receiving treatment. At the same time, the Trust wants to consult on whether the publications could increase the risk of spreading MRSA if they become contaminated with...

In the last week, Joseph Brant lost his apartment, walked by scores of dead in the streets, traversed pools of toxic water and endured an arduous journey to escape the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in his hometown New Orleans... Gerald Greenwood, 55, collected a free Bible earlier in the morning, but sat watching a science fiction television program above the stands in an enclosed stadium once home to Houston's baseball and football teams. "This is the work of Satan right here," he said of the floods. The Bible was one of the few books many of the refugees had among...

Gideons International is rushing 350,000 Bibles to shelters in the Gulf Coast. You can visit their website to make an online donation.

The Gideons International are sending 40,000 Personal Witnessing Testaments (New Testament, Psalms, Proverbs) to be distributed at the Astrodome and other relief centers in Houston. My camp in Clear Lake is the focal point for organizing Gideon volunteers to help with the distribution. We are doing this in cooperation with the Salvation Army. If you are a Gideon, or a minister, and would like to help the Salvation Army and Gideons minister to the people and distribute the New Testaments please freep mail me your name and phone number and either myself, the Salvation Army or a Gideon organizer will...

If Katrina has taken everything from you, and you then turn to the Bible for help, you are an idiot. At least that’s the perspective of several posters to a blog run by Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson, a Nashville-based Bible publisher. The story started with Hyatt’s offer of assistance: ". . . we will donate 100,000 Bibles to the relief efforts. Why Bibles? This afternoon, an official in Baton Rouge said on Fox News, “We need water, food, ... and Bibles.” This is something I knew we could help with. Samaritan's Purse, an organization headed by Franklin...

Greg Griffith is taking donations of Bibles to distribute to those stranded in shelters far from their homes. Please send what you can to:Greg Griffith ------------ Jackson, MSPlease mark your package with the words “Bible donation.”