Christianity is a rather interesting faith. Like all faiths, there are numerous disagreements in exactly what Christians are, what they believe in, how they should act, and so forth.

Generally when one group of Christians disagree with each other they split and form a new denomination. What happens when a Christian group, no longer content to disagree with other Christians, also disagrees with the bible?

Well, a group of conservative Americans want to rewrite the bible to better coincide with their opinions about faith. The entire page about this project reads like a bad joke, which I certainly hope it is.

I could go on at length about my feelings about this, but here is what they have to say for themselves.

Their rationnel for creating a new translation is as follows:

As of 2009, there is no fully conservative translation of the Bible which satisfies the following ten guidelines:

1. Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias
2. Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, "gender inclusive" language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity
3. Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level
4. Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop; defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle".
5. Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as "gamble" rather than "cast lots"; using modern political terms, such as "register" rather than "enroll" for the census
6. Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
7. Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
8. Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story
9. Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
10. Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word "Lord" rather than "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or "Lord God."

Their approach to the task is as follows:

- identify pro-liberal terms used in existing Bible translations, such as "government", and suggest more accurate substitutes
- identify the omission of liberal terms for vices, such as "gambling", and identify where they should be used
- identify conservative terms that are omitted from existing translations, and propose where they could improve the translation
- identify terms that have lost their original meaning, such as "word" in the beginning of the Gospel of John, and suggest replacements, such as "truth"

This is going to be a web 2.0 bible since the translation is occurring on a wiki. Here are the purported benefits to an online translation effort:

- supported by conservative principles, the project can be bolder in uprooting and excluding liberal distortions
- the project can adapt quickly to future threats from liberals to biblical integrity
- the ensuing debate would flesh out -- and stop -- the infiltration of churches by liberals pretending to be Christian, much as a vote by legislators exposes the liberals
- debunk the pervasive and hurtful myth that Jesus would be a political liberal today

Hopefully people will simply ignore this translation since it will be the "bible anyone can edit".