God Is Being Sued

Guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised; after all we do live in the litigation age. Suing has become the new national past time. If you believe all of the lawyers’ ads on TV, the quickest and surest way to riches is to have an accident. Of course, the ads have a disclaimer that says “Past performance is no guarantee of future success.” But what lawyer would be so foolish to take on God? I don’t believe that has been tried since the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee in July of 1925. You’ll be glad to know that no lawyer would take the case. Even Julian Abels Cook, Jr., U. S. District Judge who examined the suit and who will hear the case against Thomas Nelson said he “has some very genuine concerns about the nature and efficacy of [Fowler’s] claims.” This, however, did not stop Bradley LaShawn Fowler. He is going to represent himself.

Mr. Fowler would obviously insist that he is not actually suing God. He is suing Zondervan Publishing Company for $60 million dollars, and he is also suing local Bible publisher Thomas Nelson for $10 million. While he isn’t suing God directly, he is suing God’s word. Isn’t that tantamount to the same thing? So what is his problem with God’s word?

Fowler’s suit claims that his constitutional rights have been violated by both of these companies because of Bibles they published which condemn homosexuality. It is the use of the word “homosexuals” in 1 Corinthians 6:9 that he particularly objects to saying that this “is not a translation but a change.” According to a USA Today report, the Bibles in question refer to homosexuals as sinners, and instead of being a legitimate translations, they reflect an individual or a group’s conclusions and that it is a “misinterpretation of the Bible.” He claims this has caused him to be an outcast in his family and has contributed to “physical discomfort and periods of demoralization, chaos, and bewilderment.”

Zondevan responded first by saying that it does not translate the Bible or own the copyright for any of the translations it publishes. Their statement said, “We rely only the scholarly judgment of the highly respected credible translation committees behind each translation and never alter the text of the translations we are licensed to publish…we only publish credible translations produced by credible Biblical scholars.”

Obviously Mr. Fowler is not a Bible scholar, nor is he relying on Biblical scholarship for his conclusions. Simon J. Kistemaker, commenting on 1 Corinthians 6:9ff, wrote: “The Greek word, malakai (homosexuals), relates to men and boys who allow themselves to be misused homosexually…By contrast, the third Greek term arsenokoitai (sodomites), represents men who initiate homosexual practices (cf. 1 Timothy 1:10)” (Commentary on 1 Corinthians). Commenting on the same text Burton Coffman wrote, “Regarding the passive and active homosexuals referred to in these words, it should be remembered that an apostle of Jesus Christ condemned such persons in the judgment that they shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians). In addition to these scholarly observations, I checked numerous translations of the Bible, and the majority used the word “homosexuals” in this text, and those that did not used words that implied the same sexual perversion. Do you think Mr. Fowler will take them all on? It would do him good to heed these words: “If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18, 19).

Sellers S. Crain, Jr., Minister

Rivergate Church of Christ

201 Alta Loma Road

Madison, TN 37115