From Ekklesia, a story and excerpts from the new but controversial Good as New Bible. Compare Mark 1:10-11 KJV, with this rendering: As he was climbing up the bank again, the sun shone through a gap in the clouds. At the same time a pigeon flew down and perched on him. Jesus took this as a sign that God’s spirit was with him. A voice from overhead was heard saying, ‘That’s my boy! You’re doing fine!’ Peter becomes "Rocky," and Barabbas is "Barry." I don't think this will fly with the "thee and thou" crowd.
Christian Carnival XXIV is happening over at Parablemania: twenty bloggers have submitted links to longish, high-quality posts on various themes, and the carnival host posts each link with appropriately complimentary or critical commentary. What a great idea! Yes, I'm thinking of stealing it. Of course, here in the Bloggernacle we'd have to call it a pageant.
Albert Mohler has a fun editorial on Biblical illiteracy: One survey showed 50% of high school seniors thought Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife (or possibly a same sex couple?). Other survey examples were those who thought Billy Graham preached the Sermon on the Mount, and that gifted 12% that thought Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.
Christianity Today has a review of Spiderman 2--they like it. No Jesus-speak in the review, but a nice little "Talk About It" box ("Why do bad things happen to good people?") at the bottom of the page. There's another box with quick highlights of things that might embarrass you if you took your 10-year-old to see it ("the movie is surprisingly wholesome—no sexual content or language to worry about"), which could actually be a handy thing to know.
In a post on the Good as New Bible I pondered whether it would be better titled an 'adaptation' than a translation. Reminds me of those films 'loosely based on a true story.'
By the way, Spiderman 2 was great.
Posted by: dp | Jul 01, 2004 at 04:49 AM
Great idea dave. I'm all for a Mormon Pageant!
Posted by: lyle | Jul 01, 2004 at 07:42 AM
I think the Pageant idea is fantastic.
I was invited to participate in the Christian Carnival once. I let them know I was LDS and asked if they still would welcome my participation. They said they would and then I got busy with life and didn't have time to submit anything. Hopefully I'll be more suffessful with a Mormon Pageant type offering.
Posted by: danithew | Jul 01, 2004 at 08:48 AM
"Suffessful" is exactly what I meant to write. It is not a mistake.
Posted by: danithew | Jul 01, 2004 at 10:19 AM