Disarming ‘sacred weapon’ against LGBTTQ+ Christians

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/02/2024 (955 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In 1959, a 21-year-old Canadian theology student by the name of David Fearon wrote a letter.

It wasn’t any old letter. It was a secret letter to Luther Weigle, a great preacher and pre-eminent biblical scholar who was chair of the committee that had created a new translation of the Bible — the Revised Standard Version (RSV).

Started in 1946, the RSV was the work of 32 of the best religious scholars drawn from the faculties of 20 universities and theological seminaries across the U.S.

The committee’s goal was to create a readable and accurate modern English translation that aimed to “preserve all that is best in the English Bible as it has been known and used through the centuries” and “to put the message of the Bible in simple, enduring words.”

Following six years of work, the RSV was published in 1952. It quickly became a go-to version of the Bible for millions of Christians in the U.S. and Canada and other countries.

No translation is perfect. But those scholars got something terribly wrong when, for the first time ever in a Bible translation, they used the word “homosexual” in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 — verses that identify those who “will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

In his letter, Fearon — just a 21-year-old student writing to one of the most prominent theologians in North America — pointed out the committee had mistakenly combined the Greek words malakoi, meaning soft or effeminate, and arsenokoitai, men who have sex with men, typically in an exploitative context, and translated them as “homosexual” in that verse.

In the letter, Fearon pointed out that those words actually had more to do with power imbalances and the abuse of young male sex workers in Corinth in the first century than with same-sex relationships in the 20th century.

Fearon went on to say he feared the misuse of that word might result in the Bible being used as a “sacred weapon… against a defenceless minority group.”

He signed the letter “David S.” He didn’t use his last name because he was gay.

After receiving the letter, and some additional correspondence between Fearon and Weigle, the committee agreed they had made a mistake and said they would make a change. However, due to a commitment made to the publisher, a newly revised edition could not be issued until 1971.

By then, hundreds of millions of Bibles with the wrong word had been published with the result that the Bible had, indeed, been turned into what Fearon feared — a “sacred weapon” against LGBTTQ+ people.

Fearon’s role in the story of how the RSV was corrected might have been lost to history if not for 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture, a new documentary film produced by Sharon “Rocky” Roggio.

In the award-winning documentary, Roggio — who is a member of the LGBTTQ+ community — follows researchers seeking to learn how that mistranslation got into the RSV. This includes their discovery of Fearon’s original and long-forgotten letter in the Yale University archives.

“David was ahead of his time,” said Roggio, noting the former United Church minister was able to see the documentary before he died last year. “He was so proud of the legacy he left behind.”

In addition to illuminating Fearon’s role, the documentary also tells the story of other Christian LGBTTQ+ advocates who seek to find space for LGBTTQ+ people in the church, as well as Roggio’s own relationship with her non-affirming evangelical pastor father, Sal.

Their relationship is a key part of the documentary, showing how two people can fundamentally disagree about a subject like LGBTTQ+ yet somehow stay in conversation with each other.

“He’s a good man, even if I disagree with him theologically,” she said, adding she includes his opposition in the documentary because “I wanted to ensure there were other voices like his” in it.

The documentary also features interviews with Greek language experts and biblical scholars who speak not only about that mistranslated verse, but other so-called “clobber” verses that have been used by Christians to condemn and marginalize LGBTTQ+ people.

Overall, Roggio’s goal in making the documentary was to “reshape the way we read those passages in the Bible” and then to then “disarm” it.

“I want to provide people with a new way to read those verses,” she said, adding “I’m not attacking the Bible, I don’t want to pull the rug out from under believers. I just want to show the mistake that was made, and show how the Bible has been weaponized against LGBTTQ+ people.”

Before he died, Fearon told Broadview magazine he had a “true feeling of a second calling” by seeing a more-accurately translated Bible.

According to Alison Starks, who wrote about Fearon for the magazine, he was “an unsung hero” who should be “a household name for gay Christians and his contribution to history should be in every scriptural studies class at seminary.”

1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture is available for online screening by visiting 1946themovie.com

faith@freepress.mb.ca

The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba through our Religion in the News project. This reporting continues because readers like you step forward to fund it.

Donate now to support our reporting on religion.
Your donation is eligible for a charitable tax receipt. BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER