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Rep. J.C. Watts pushes for better faith-based initiative bill in Senate "The armies of compassion are waiting for the Senate to follow the House's lead and pass a solid faith-based bill," Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) told Connecticut Republicans yesterday while campaigning for candidates there. Watts wants the Senate to pass its bill and have the differences between it and H.R. 7, the House's faith-based initiatives bill, worked out in a House-Senate conference meeting. But many Democratic senators, including Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), who is sponsoring the Senate bill, want H.R. 7 to die. They would rather have the full House vote on the Senate bill once it is passed to avoid any compromise between the two bills. Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein tells The Washington Times a conference would "reopen old wounds," "inject some political controversy back into the debate," and perhaps result in nothing getting to the President's desk.

There are significant differences between the two bills. The House bill expands charitable choice and allows faith-based organizations to compete for federal funds without compromising their character. The Senate bill avoids charitable choice altogether.

Is the Southern Baptist Convention's Holman Christian Standard Bible gender-inclusive, too?
As the Today's New International Version (TNIV) of the Bible gets ready for retail sale, Associated Baptist Press claims a scoop: the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), published by the Southern Baptist Convention's official publisher, Lifeway, is gender-inclusive, too. David Stratton, pastor of Brunswick Islands Baptist Church in Supply, N.C., chose a sample of seven books in the New Testament (Mark, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, James and Revelation), and found 194 verses in which the HCSB is more gender-neutral than the NIV. It's also much more gender-inclusive than the King James Version. In fact, reports the news service, "the HCSB is actually more likely than the TNIV to translate masculine participles that refer to God in a gender-neutral manner. For example, Rev. 1:4 speaks of 'him which is, and which was, and which is to come' (KJV). The NIV translates 'him who is, and who was, and who is to come,' and the TNIV keeps the same reading. The HCSB, however, has 'the One who is, who was, and who is coming.'" Keep in mind that Associated Baptist Press often highlights stories critical of the conservative wing of the Southern Baptist Convention.

More on the TNIV:

• Bible changes leads to a holy war of words | A new "gender accurate" translation of the New Testament is creating a furor among believers who see every sacred word as a cobblestone on the path to Jesus and salvation. (USA Today)
  
  
• Bible controversy is as old as Methuselah | From scholars burned at the stake centuries ago to current translators excoriated by their peers, bringing the Bible to the people is risky business (USA Today)
  
  
• The evolution of the Christian Bible (USA Today)
  
  

Holy Week:

• Reconstructing the tomb of Christ | Science, scholarship shed new light on religious epicenter (MSNBC)
  
  
• Bush's Easter message | Easter's message of renewal is especially meaningful now during this challenging time in our Nation's history (White House)
  
  
• Egged on by a faith deliciously foiled | The newspaper is guaranteed to get letters about this column. (Danny Katz, The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
  
  
• Major changes in how holy days are celebrated | On-the-go faithful have it their way on holy days (San Francisco Chronicle)
  
  

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March (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46