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By Tim Wood
Published June 1, 1997
The International Bible Society last week canceled plans to publish a "gender-neutral" version of the Bible.
Many conservative Christians, many of whom were identified as Southern Baptists, mounted a protest against the proposed translation. It would have been a revision of the New International Version, one of the most popular translations available.
According to various reports, it would have substituted gender-neutral language in some places. Masculine pronouns would have become neutral pronouns. And the world would have come to an end.
Well, not really. Defenders of the proposed translation said it was a more accurate translation of the original text.
The idea of a gender neutral translation doesn't bother me as long as it's an issue of translation, not political correctness. What does bother me is what some denominations have done to their hymnals in the name of political correctness.
Here is where my male chauvinistic side comes out. Some hymnals have taken old hymns and replaced references to men with neutral references.
For example, what is wrong with "Good Christian Men Rejoice?" Some revisionists would have the word "men" replaced.
We do not know the intent of the hymn writer in using the word "men." It probably was a reference to mankind - men and women. I hope the writer was not excluding women from the act of rejoicing.
But hymns like this one are the target of the revisionists. I dislike these changes for several reasons. The primary reason is disrespect for the original hymn writer.
What right do we have to change the words of a hymn written 100 years ago? If the writer is living, only he (or she) should have the right to change the words. If the writer is now composing for the heavenly chorus, we should leave the hymn alone out of respect.
If some people find the male references in a hymn offensive, there's an easy solution - don't sing it.
I find this desecration of classic hymns offensive. If I'm in church and a "revised" hymn is chosen, I sing the original version. It's my form of protest and a statement of respect for the hymn writer.
Now for those of you who are preparing to picket the newspaper and its male chauvinist editor, let me say that the male pronoun business can be taken too far. The Bible uses male pronouns for God. But men shouldn't think this is any endorsement of the male gender.
The Bible also tells us that there won't be gender in heaven. The Holy Trinity of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit is beyond human understanding. Gender references are necessary for our understanding. We just have to trust the translators and hope they have used sound scholarship in choosing pronouns and such.
But in the case of the hymns, there usually isn't translation involved. The writer wrote what he - or she - wrote. Let's leave it alone.
And speaking of women writing hymns, let's remember that an incredible woman named Fanny J. Crosby wrote a substantial number of the hymns found in hymnals. She wrote thousands of hymn poems, which others set to music.
When I sing a Fanny J. Crosby hymn, I don't worry about gender. I'll rejoice in the beauty of it or realize some error of my ways which the words have pointed out.
Fortunately, the Word of God and the great hymns have survived and will survive the attempts to change them.
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