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PETA Wants More Animal-Friendly Language In Bible

32511peta.jpg After they heard that the latest translation of the New International Version of the Bible will now use gender-inclusive language such as "he or she" instead of just "he", PETA saw an opportunity to change one other thing. The organization has petitioned the Committee on Bible Translation to suggest that its next translation remove "speciesist" language, by referring to animals as "he or she" instead of "it." “When the Bible moves toward inclusively in one area...it wasn’t much of a stretch to suggest they move toward inclusively in this area. Language matters. Calling an animal 'it' denies them something. They are beloved by God. They glorify God," Bruce Friedrich, PETA's vice president for policy, told CNN.

PETA said it hopes the switch to include more gender-inclusive language will spark translators to readdress the ways animals are referred to in the Bible. "Updating the Bible's language regarding animals would not only reflect modern writing trends but also reinforce the idea that animals are living beings valued by God, not inanimate objects. Jesus taught us the importance of mercy and compassion, and this update would encourage mercy and compassion for all God's creatures—including those who have feathers, fins, and fur," Friedrich wrote.

But David Berger, the dean of Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel graduate school of Jewish studies, said shifting the language would be difficult, given the original Hebrew: "In Hebrew all nouns are gender-specific. So the noun for chair is masculine and the noun for earth is feminine. There’s simply no such thing as a neutral noun. It’s unusual to have a noun that would indicate the sex of the animal."

David Lyle Jeffrey, a professor at Baylor University who teaches about ancient texts and the Bible's relationship to literature and the arts, sympathizes with PETA, but isn't sure if it would be true to the text: "When you get to the point when you say, 'Don’t say it, say he or she' when the text doesn’t, you’re both screwing up the text and missing the main point you addressed."

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  • nam_vet6869

    They need to keep their PETA of our Bible. Who cares what they want, I sure don't.

  • quikaim

    If Peta had it in mind to use this "new Version" themselves, they could go right ahead, but like the tree hugging, crystal worshiping,godless commies that make-up Peta they want everyone else to conform to their version of reality.

  • Type your comment here.IT IS REALLY A GOOD JOB. I ALSO WANT TO DO SOMETHING WITH PETA.HELP ME TO BE A PART IN INDIA.

  • Guest

    speaking of Cain...

    And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.

    it seems to me like GOD LIKES MEAT BETTER THAN FRIGGIN' VEGETABLES.

  • FU Boy

    And PETA can take the controversial stance of hating Satan for how he slaughtered Job's livestock as a test.

  • Guest

    PETA will have to censor a whole lot of chapters concerning animal sacrifices: "And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering..."

  • MermaidFornicator

    this has nothing to do with nyc

  • randomtransplant

    Try hitting up nightlife where the music is low and interesting conversation matters.

  • etbmfa

    7 Things You Didn't Know About PETA

    1) According to government documents, PETA employees have killed more than 19,200 dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens since 1998. This behavior continues despite PETA’s moralizing about the “unethical” treatment of animals by farmers, scientists, restaurant owners, circuses, hunters, fishermen, zookeepers, and countless other Americans. PETA puts to death over 90 percent of the animals it accepts from members of the public who expect the group to make a reasonable attempt to find them adoptive homes. PETA holds absolutely no open-adoption shelter hours at its Norfolk, VA headquarters, choosing instead to spend part of its $32 million annual income on a contract with a crematory service to periodically empty hundreds of animal bodies from its large walk-in freezer.

    2) PETA president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk has described her group’s overall goal as “total animal liberation.” This means the complete abolition of meat, milk, cheese, eggs, honey, zoos, aquariums, circuses, wool, leather, fur, silk, hunting, fishing, and pet ownership. In a 2003 profile of Newkirk in The New Yorker, author Michael Specter wrote that Newkirk has had at least one seeing-eye dog taken away from its blind owner. PETA is also against all medical research that requires the use of animals, including research aimed at curing AIDS and cancer.

    3) PETA has given tens of thousands of dollars to convicted arsonists and other violent criminals. This includes a 2001 donation of $1,500 to the North American Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an FBI-certified “domestic terrorist” group responsible for dozens of firebombs and death threats. During the 1990s, PETA paid $70,200 to Rodney Coronado, an Animal Liberation Front (ALF) serial arsonist convicted of burning down a Michigan State University research laboratory. In his sentencing memorandum, a federal prosecutor implicated PETA president Ingrid Newkirk in that crime. PETA vegetarian campaign coordinator Bruce Friedrich has also told an animal rights convention that “blowing stuff up and smashing windows” is “a great way to bring about animal liberation,” adding, “Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it.”

    4) PETA activists regularly target children as young as six years old with anti-meat and anti-milk propaganda, even waiting outside their schools to intercept them without notifying their parents. One piece of kid-targeted PETA literature tells small children: “Your Mommy Kills Animals!” PETA brags that its messages reach over 1.2 million minor children, including 30,000 kids between the ages of 6 and 12, all contacted by e-mail without parental supervision. One PETA vice president told the Fox News Channel’s audience: “Our campaigns are always geared towards children, and they always will be.”

    5) PETA’s president has said that “even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we would be against it.” And PETA has repeatedly attacked research foundations like the March of Dimes, the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the American Cancer Society, solely because they support animal-based research aimed at curing life-threatening diseases and birth defects. And PETA helped to start and manage a quasi-medical front group, the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, to attack medical research head-on.

    6) PETA has compared Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust to farm animals and Jesus Christ to pigs. PETA’s religious campaigns include a website that claims—despite ample evidence to the contrary—that Jesus Christ was a vegetarian. PETA holds protests at houses of worship, even suing one church that tried to protect its members from Sunday-morning harassment. Its billboards taunt Christians with the message that hogs “died for their sins.” PETA insists, contrary to centuries of rabbinical teaching, that the Jewish ritual of kosher slaughter shouldn’t be allowed. And its infamous “Holocaust on Your Plate” campaign crassly compared the Jewish victims of Nazi genocide to farm animals.

    7) PETA frequently looks the other way when its celebrity spokespersons don’t practice what it preaches. As gossip bloggers and Hollywood journalists have noted, Pamela Anderson’s Dodge Viper (auctioned to benefit PETA) had a “luxurious leather interior”; Jenna Jameson was photographed fishing, slurping oysters, and wearing a leather jacket just weeks after launching an anti-leather campaign for PETA; Morrissey got an official “okay” from PETA after eating at a steakhouse; Dita von Teese has written about her love of furs and foie gras; Steve-O built a career out of abusing small animals on film; the officially “anti-fur” Eva Mendes often wears fur anyway; and Charlize Theron’s celebrated October 2007 Vogue cover shoot featured several suede garments. In 2008, “Baby Phat” designer Kimora Lee Simmons became a PETA spokesmodel despite working with fur and leather, after making a $20,000 donation to the animal rights group.

    www.animalscam.com

  • virgilstarkwell

    hmm - 'animalscam.com'... well, they sound like a bunch of well-meaning folks. i wonder who they are. oh, here it is: it's one of the many sites run by the 'center for consumer freedom' - a lobby group 'dedicated to protecting consumer choices and promoting common sense'. great! i'm 100% for choice AND common sense... lucky me!

    uh-oh, it seems that the center for consumer freedom was initially funded with $600,000 of phillip morris' money and it's now funded by a coalition of restaurant and food companies including arby's, tyson foods, and mcdonalds.... and their mission is to actively represent their interests.

    damn. i hate it when facts get in the way of my knee-jerk reactions.

    i'm no friend of peta, but be careful who you choose to get in bed with.

  • virgilstarkwell

    by the way, their tax exempt status as a non-profit has been revoked (something about $7,000,000 in donations getting misdirected to the founder) and they have campaigned against those yentas at 'mothers against drunk driving'.

  • randomtransplant

    Nice character assassination skills - but points 1-7 still seem pretty factual from where I sit. Even Penn and Teller have documented PITA's shady practices.

  • FU Boy

    So, how does PETA feel about Sampson using a donkey's jaw to beat people?

  • randomtransplant

    PETA knows the people who give them money arn't likely to be religious. Which is probably why, decades later, many of the most compassionate people in the world don't consider them relevant.

  • Guest

    They're in full support of that. But in my Bible, it was the jawbone of an ass, which is a synonym for someone who supports PETA, so who really knows?

  • hi_mom

    That's offensive. Next time please indicate the sex of the animal.

  • FU Boy

    Which, the ass or the PETA supporter?

  • chuzzlewit

    i've so been looking for a longer, harder-to-read bible.

  • CityFace

    I'm OK with changing animals' pronouns in the Bible to "he or she," if God's pronouns are also changed to "he or she" or "it."

  • FU Boy

    That shouldn't happen for one reason: God is a he. God's word is a she. Creation happened because the masculine and the feminine created new life.

    It's one of those things that got lost in translation to English, but gives a much more significant meaning to the Genesis story.

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