Recognizing the Enemy

A mobile version was the only update
the 1919 Protestant Union Bible needed

After receiving their MBA degrees, two of my business-school classmates decided the pursuit of filthy lucre wasn't for them and entered seminary. One became an Episcopal priest, and the other, a Chinese-American evangelical, went to Hong Kong. I thought of him when the Chinese Communist Party announced that it was producing its own version of the Bible: [bold added]

the party sees Christianity, which some estimates suggest is the country’s fastest-growing religion, as a unique threat. [Duke Professor Xi] Lian cites three major reasons. First, Christianity is an international religion. Bonds of affection and solidarity link Christians around the world to their brethren in China.

Second, it is congregational: “You have this ability to mobilize a stable, reliable community.” Congregations helped topple dictatorships in South Korea and Poland. Third, and perhaps most important, Christianity’s “transcendent vision, transcendent values” present the Communist Party with an insuperable “moral and ideological rivalry,” Mr. Lian says, because Chinese people largely see the party’s Marxist-Leninist foundation as a spent force.

Over the centuries translating the Bible has required knowledge and dedication far beyond that of your average scholar. Those undertaking the task must not only be fluent in Greek, Hebrew, and the destination language but know when to deviate from a word-for-word translation in order to capture the poetry of Biblical passages. The CCP version will not only be a crude effort, but the language will be bowdlerized to comport with Marxist ideology:

Purging passages deemed incompatible with “core socialist values” while retaining a measure of the original poetry—this would require literary achievement and deep religious knowledge, both of which are lacking in the party’s handpicked experts.

Joseph Stalin thought little of the power of religion when he asked, "How many divisions does the Pope have?"

67 years after Stalin's death the Soviet Union exists no longer, and Christianity has been targeted as a threat by the most powerful Communist government on earth. Xi Jinping may be ascendant today, but the same fate awaits his attempt to suppress and alter truths that have lasted millennia.

The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceeding fine.