Is Jesus Red or Blue? The Politics of Bible Translations

Just as it is supposedly possible to tell someone's political party from their consumer preferences, you can separate the Blue and Red Christians based on which translation of the Bible they use.

While Muslims believe the Qur'an is the direct Word of God and must be read in the original Arabic, Christians don't insist on reading the multiple Greek and Hebrew antecedents to the Bible. Thus, one must choose which of the several dozen English translations to use. Here are the major translations grouped geneologically with their political significance:

• KJV (King James Version) - Traditionalist. Perhaps the most poetic (although often less "accurate") translation, phrases from the KJV echo in our popular consciousness--from Handel's Messiah to Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream". Christians of all sorts like the KJV and the various attempts to update it, but some fundamentalists believe that only KJV should be used and that it is actually "more accurate" than the original Hebrew/Greek!
• ASV (American Standard Version) - Jehovah's Witness. Based on KJV, this is the old granddady of all of the following translations, but only Jehovah's witnesses still use it.
• RSV (Revised Standard Version) - Mildly liberal. An update to ASV which had a few features that, among other things, got it into trouble with Sen. Joseph McCarthy! Declining in popularity--most folks who would have used this now use NRSV/NIV/etc.
• NASB (New American Standard Bible) - Most literal. Of all mainstream English translations, this is the one truest to the original languages, although this sometimes detracts from its clarity/poetry/theology.
• NRSV (New Revised Standard Version)- Liberal/academic. Updates RSV with Dead Sea Scroll material, eliminates "thee/thou", and (controversially) includes "gender-neutral" language. There are several scholarly versions used academically (particularly in secular contexts, such as in university "great works" courses).
• ESV (English Standard Version) - Conservative. A recent (2001) revision of RSV, like the NRSV, except without the gender-neutral language and other perceived liberalisms. Less literal than NASB but more literal than NIV.



• NIV (New International Version) - Mainstream conservative. One of the most popular English translations, used in many Protestant American churches. Somewhat less literal than other versions, since it translates idea-for-idea vice word-for-word (a practice known as "dynamic equivalence")
• TNIV (Today's New International Version) - More liberal. An update to the NIV that includes "gender neutral" language and other such liberalisms.



• NEB (New English Bible)/REB (Revised English Bible) - Mainstream/More Liberal British. Both are commonly used by the Church of England and others in Britain; REB is a gender-inclusive, revised version of NEB.



• CEV (Contemporary English Version) - Simplified. Paraphrases the Bible into simpler language like you'd hear on TV.
• GNB (Good News Bible) - Straightforward. Paraphrase designed originally for non-native English speakers.
• NLT (New Living Translation) - Paraphrased. Updated version of the once-popular paraphrase The Living Bible.

Catholic Bibles are different not only in that they get a fancy imprimatur but they also include the deuterocanonical books:

• NAB (New American Bible) - Mainstream Catholic version (actually slightly different versions between 1970 and 2006); conservatives like the "Ignatius" RSV-Catholic Edition and liberals like the Catholic NRSV (approved by Canadian but not US bishops)...über-conservatives hope for a Catholic ESV. New Jerusalem Bible is a less-literal (dynamic equivalence) version.

More Bible translation blog fun: an interesting discussion about what translation has to do with dog urination.

Posted 03:21 PST | (1) comments

Crash Into Stereotypes

I just finished watching Crash, an ensemble film likely to win a number of awards (including, perhaps, the Oscar for Best Picture?) this year. WARNING: Spoilers below if you haven't seen the movie!

Oscar-Made Ensemble Films

To me, the film had a similar feel to the less popular Thirteen Conversations About One Thing--a bunch of random folks end up having connections to each other in an artsy way. This style of film (the random-ensemble-comes-together, vice just a film with an ensemble cast) seems to be growing in popularity especially amongst Oscar contenders, with such titles as Love Actually, Magnolia, and Pulp Fiction.

Preachy or no?

At first the movie seemed like yet another can't-we-all-just-get-along several-hour exercise to show that "racism is bad." However, once two of the characters simultaneously bad-mouth and live up to the stereotype that "young black men cruising a white suburb must be up to no good" I knew the film was more complex.

Indeed, each person defies a stereotype in one way or another: The "good" non-racist cop kills a Black man, the "bad" racist cop saves a Black woman's life. The "gang-banger" Latino ends up being a tender father, the "hoodlum" black car thief ends up saving a truckload of immigrants from slavery. The "hothead" Persian store owner sees the light; the "Latin-bashing" rich white woman realizes her Latina housekeeper is her best friend. By the end of the film, each of the characters suprises you in some way or another.

Asians get screwed again

However, one group never gets any multi-dimensional characters or moves beyond conventional stereotypes: Asians. Despite LA being chock full of Asians, there are basically only two kinds of Asians in the film: FOBs (represented by the Korean couple who each get into an accident) and Nerds (represented by the inspector who tells the Persians that the insurance company won't pay them back).

The only "suprising" the Asian characters do is not be Chinese: the "chinaman" under the truck is Korean, and the "chinamen" in the truck are Southeast Asian. (As the director mentions in the DVD commentary, this "not all Asians are Chinese" falls in line with the "not all Latinos are Mexican" and "not all Middle Easterners are Arab" theme.) Other blogs noticed the same thing. Although the movie has aspirations of initiating dialogue about stereotypes and racism, at least where Asians are concerned, it merely replays the same old schtick.

Linguistics and racism

African American Vernacular English (or AAVE) plays an interesting role in one scene: Tony Danza, in a cameo as a TV producer, comments that one of the characters isn't talking "Black" enough. The film sets up his comment as thinly veiled racism, but I disagree: Perhaps the way he said it--"Eddie's supposed to be the smart one, not Jamal," thus equating AAVE with stupidity--was wrong, but it's true that some characters (just like some people) speak more "standard"/white English than others. Most African-Americans drift easily between the two linguistic forms, but it does "ring false" (as Danza's character points out) if a character who always speaks in AAVE suddenly sounds like a WASP-y Harvard grad.

Posted 08:07 PST | (1) comments

OHIO in the News


OHIO Media Day

We recently had our Return to Service ceremony (basically the same thing as a Commissioning ceremony except that OHIO was never de-commissioned), so OHIO is now all over the web! Here are some of the best links:

• The Navy News Site has a bunch of photos, including one of much of the wardroom "manning the rails" in front of the Captain reporting OHIO "manned and ready." Since we're arranged in height order, I'm about 5-6 people too short to appear in the photo! Also, the one showing sailors in front of the sail with our "726" hull number includes 2 guys in my division. Other Navy photos are at the CSG9 webpage and slideshow.


• Before the ceremony, we had a "media day" underway when various organizations were invited on board to see the sub in action. Yours truly was stuck back in "the box" (the Maneuvering space in the Engine Room where the reactor is controlled) so there aren't any photos of me...but there is a photo accompanying the Kitsap Sun's article of some of my fellow JOs pretending to plan a mission with the SEALS in our Battle Management Center.


• Media Day happened to be a very windy one, so the vessel that was supposed to take the media back home had some trouble...The Tacoma News Tribune article mentions the stormy weather and cheesily calls it "a metaphor for Ohio's new mission." Also check out LTJG Ryan Schow's head just barely peeking out in front of his freezing lookouts (YN2 Mcleod and MM3 Simpson).


• One of the film crews on board for Media Day was from the Naval Media Center, who produced a short Windows Media Player news clip that features a bunch of my shipmates and the Captain.


• Supposedly KING 5 news brought a film crew as well, but the only clip I could find on their website was this older one of OHIO passing Seattle on our way out for Sea Trials.


• Finally, the Navigator's wife, Heidi Evans, wrote the best description of the RTS ceremony in her weekly Saturday column in the Kitsap Sun (you may need to register to see it).

Posted 01:36 PST | (0) comments

Submarine Movies

So, what's the best submarine movie? Clearly Das Boot is the classic choice, although The Hunt for Red October, with its Cold War drama and classic Sean Connery lines ("One ping only!") is a close runner-up. Of course, each has its problems: The former is in German (and thus the subtitles will put off a lot of viewers) and the latter requires close attention (otherwise its dense plot will confuse a lot of viewers). Nevertheless, if you only see two sub movies, these should be the two.

What of the rest of the movies?

Well, having ridden the ALABAMA, I am compelled to mention Crimson Tide. It features excellent performances by Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington and an interesting dilemma regarding nuclear war, but in the submarine community it's a laughingstock. Pretty much every scene has multiple errors, a handful of which are on the IMDB goofs page, but the funny thing is that the dialogue is fairly accurate (e.g. what people say when the ship is diving, as opposed to what you see--a fast attack diving!). My guess is that they had a submariner help them write the script, but that they didn't have anybody on hand (or didn't listen to him) during filming.

I wasn't all that thrilled with Run Silent, Run Deep. I honestly don't remember much about the movie, other than when I finished it, I remember thinking, "That is a classic?"

U-571 is a bit silly/trite in points, but is still an enjoyable movie.

K-19: The Widowmaker features a horrific nuclear accident underway and an even more horrific Russian accent by Harrison Ford, but it tells its (true) story well. It's important to note that the Russians' reactors had (and, as far as I know, still have) many fewer safety features than the Americans'!

I recently saw a forgettable submarine rescue movie from 1978, Gray Lady Down, starring Charlton Heston ("Let my people go...um...back to the surface, Pharaoh!"). In an interesting twist, Gray Lady Down's cast features two stars from the same year's Superman: Christopher Reeve (who of course plays Superman/Clark Kent) as LTJG Phillips, a bit part, and Ned Beatty (who plays Otis, Lex Luthor's bumbling assistant) as Chief Mickey, Stacy Keach's slightly-less-bumbling assistant. For much better sub rescue fare, read the excellent book The Terrible Hours by Peter Maas (there was also a halfway decent TV movie Submerged based on the book, starring Sam Neil (lead in Jurassic Park and XO on the Red October) as Charles "Sweede" Momsen).

However, the most accurate portrayal of submariners and their antics is definitely Down Periscope, the silly comedy featuring Kelsey Grammer. Ask any submariner and they'll tell you the same!

Posted 23:30 PST | (1) comments

Frequently Asked Questions about Submarines

Having returned from a ride on the ALABAMA, I thought I'd post answers to questions folks have been asking me:

Do you have any windows?
Nope. NR-1, the Navy's research submarine, has a window, but that's about it.

But don't you want to see the fish?
Well, seeing as sunlight only penetrates down a few dozen feet, you wouldn't be able to see them without a powerful light anyway. However, I did get to see about two dozen dolphins jumping around just outside of San Diego through the periscope!

Is the nuclear power plant like The Simpsons?
Exactly. I spend 100% of my day eating jelly doughnuts and saying "Doh!"

Don't you get claustophobic?
Despite the fact that our "racks" (beds) are called "coffins," no. It's very much like having to stay inside for days at a time with the windowshades drawn.

Do you get email?
Yes, depending on the ship's schedule, we can both send and receive email. This is an improvement from the Cold War days when sailors would get only short, telegram-like "family-grams" every month or so.

What's it like?
Probably the hardest thing to get used to is the schedule. Pretty much everybody is in one of three "watch sections," which rotate every 6 hours. Thus, you are up for 12 hours (6 of which is watch), sleep for 6, up for 12, sleep for 6...always getting up at a different time (due to the 18-hour vice 24-hour day).

For more FAQs, see the excellent Boomersailors page.

Posted 18:04 PST | (0) comments

Another Reason Why Old Star Wars Better Than New Is

Geoff Pullum analyzes Yoda's syntax in a fun Language Log post, noting how Yoda tends to do two separate things: First, pull various phrases to the front of their clauses (in "XSV ordering"), as in "When nine hundred years you reach, look as good you will not." Second, "Yoda also extracts verb phrases that are catenative complements of auxiliary verbs, so those auxiliary verbs are left stranded at the end of the sentence" as in "Begun, the Clone Wars has." The second kind of Yoda-speak seems artificially backward to me, almost a caricature of the first, more natural "backwardness."

The interesting thing is that almost all of the examples of more normal/natural (in the sense of being like human natural languages) patterns come from episodes IV through VI, while the second kind of backwards-ness almost all comes from I through III. In other words, George Lucas seems to have made Yoda's speech even more unusual in the "prequels," thus making his once-sage pronouncements seem comical.

Posted 21:51 PST | (0) comments

Open TSP to All Americans

I recently emailed Senator Feinstein--always a fun part of democracy, even though her website pretty much admits that at one's opinion is merely "tallied"--about Social Security. Here's the substance of the letter:

Like many Americans, I am concerned about the long-term viability of Social Security. However, like many Americans, I recognize that the President’s plan to divert money into private accounts will only exacerbate the problem.

However, there is a simple way to allow citizens to establish their own accounts without undermining Social Security: Open the Thrift Savings Program to all Americans.

As a member of the military, I enjoy TSP's easy, low-cost, straightforward way of saving for retirement, just as many government employees enjoy the program. If it's good enough for the military and government, why not let all Americans contribute some of their income to TSP?

Now, this isn't a new idea--indeed, even the conservative Heritage Fund supports a similar measure called KidSave...but I think it's a good way of framing the debate. I'm not opposed to private accounts, just as I'm not opposed to the President's portraying Social Security as being in "crisis" (because it is at least a looming crisis): I'm merely opposed to making the problem worse by siphoning off Social Security money into those accounts.

Posted 21:02 PST | (3) comments

Luke's Car in the Snow

There was record snow here in Groton this week...I've never had to dig my car out before! (The irony is that there was hardly any snow in the mountains, thus causing jokes about having to cart snow from Cape Cod up to Vermont so people can ski!)

Posted 21:28 PST | (0) comments

The Joys of Croquet


LTJG Erik "Big E" Olson sizes up his next shot.

Thanks to heavy lobbying from one of our number, the 0402 officers spent some time playing croquet. Yes, croquet. You wouldn't think that a bunch of manly military folks would play such a "sissy" game, but it's actually a lot of fun. And it remains one of the few sports which one can play with beer in one's hand.

Why croquet? Well, it turns out that in 1982, some Naval Academy midshipmen boasted to men from nearby St. John's College that they could best the liberal, Socratically trained "Johnnies" at any sport. St. John's chose the sport: croquet. From that time on, the two Annapolis institutions have met on the croquet pitch to vie for the "Annapolis cup." It's now apparently a big to-do in Annapolis...it was even featured on NPR a few years ago. So far, the Johnnies have had more success, winning the cup all but a handful of times. While Aaron Kakiel, the aforementioned lobbyist, was not a member of the USNA croquet team, he did get sucked into the sport, and thus taught us all how to maneuver through the wickets. A little surreal, but a fun time indeed.

Posted 07:21 PST | (1) comments

"Girlie Men" in Sactown

A colleague brought the recent story about the Governator calling the California legislature "girlie men" to my attention today. I've seen the clip, and some of the uproar at the comments being supposedly "sexist" or "homophobic." Of course, Arnold was quoting the old SNL "Hans and Franz" skit with Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon--a skit which made fun of him! While people can get upset about this, I think they are upset for the wrong reason.

Why should people be upset? Because, despite being a fairly moderate Republican, Governor Schwarzenegger has bought into the California GOP's maddeningly one-track policy of "no new taxes." His remarks poke fun at the legislature for wanting to "represent those special interests...those unions and trial lawyers," while ignoring the equally strong special interests who fund Republican campaigns. Now, I'm not saying that I want to raise taxes up the wazoo, but taking any non-negative tax changes completely off the table seems needlessly ideological, particularly given the state's overwhelming budget problems. Surely money can be saved by eliminating redundancies, laying off state employees, etc. but at the end of the day, the "goes ins" have to equal the "goes outs," and it's wise to at least consider additional forms of revenue. I don't care if our governor wants to poke fun at the legislature through an old comedy skit--I do care that his party holds that legislature hostage to a comedic tax policy.

Posted 19:38 PST | (1) comments