Says who
By Parker T. Williamson, The Layman, May 26, 2010
Read commentary:
The immigrant in the Hebrew Bible
by by Tom Hobson
Ph D in Biblical Exegesis
Concordia Seminary, St Louis, MO
Lloyd Meyer’s e-mailed request was simple: “What translation of Scripture did you use?”
That question, originally sent to the Rev. Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly, ricocheted through a denominational labyrinth. It bounced from the Office of the Stated Clerk, to the Moderator of the General Assembly, to the United Methodist Publishing House, to a lobbyist for Domestic Poverty & Environmental Issues at the PCUSA Washington Office, to the Executive Director of the General Assembly Mission Council, to the director of Compassion, Peace and Justice, to the Volunteer Public Witness Representative in the Office of the General Assembly, to the Manager of Immigration Issues in the Department of Constitutional Services.
A week passed without a word from headquarters.
Meyer tried again. Reminding the stated clerk that he, the General Assembly moderator and the General Assembly Mission Council executive director had quoted the Bible in a letter they sent to Congress and the President opposing Arizona’s new immigration statute, Meyer said, “I would like to locate the Biblical Scripture to which you referred and would be most appreciative if you could provide that.”
Meyer tagged an additional motivator to his message: “I will also copy the Rev. Reyes-Chow [moderator of the General Assembly] on this e-mail and ask him to respond if you are not able.”
Parsons responded this time with a one-sentence reply: “It is my understanding that Scripture came from the Common English Bible which is a translation done under Cokesbury.”
‘Sola Scriptura’
“Thank you for your response,” said Meyer. “I contacted Cokesbury and was advised that a Common English Bible (CEB) translation to which you referred does not exist. They also advised that such a translation would not have been ‘done under Cokesbury’ as you indicated since Cokesbury is a retail division of the United Methodist Publishing House and is not involved in creating translations.”
At this point Leslie Woods, a Washington lobbyist for the denomination who specializes in “poverty and environmental issues,” jumped into it. “The stated clerk asked me to respond to your inquiry because I initially drafted the April 29 letter on immigration policy,” she said.
Making it up
Woods explained that when writing letters on behalf of the denomination, the primary authority that staff members use to drive the text is “General Assembly policy.”
“The basis for these documents,” said Woods, “is always General Assembly policy.”
“You asked about the translation of the Leviticus text,” continued Woods. “The translation is my own.”
Woods explained that no existing translation of the Bible uses her word “immigrant” when translating the Hebrew root word, GWR. Instead, they use words like “sojourner,” “foreigner,” “stranger” and “alien.”
Those published translations are inadequate, reasoned Woods, because they do not convey the message that her word “immigrant” conveys, namely, that persons who enter this country from a foreign land have inalienable rights, regardless of how they got here. Woods’ translation, she later pointed out, more closely conforms to General Assembly policy than those that appear in published translations.
Woods expressed special disdain for “many modern translations, including the NRSV and NIV, [that] use ‘alien’ to translate GWR. “‘Alien,’ while used in the NRSV and NIV, today connotes not only an ‘otherness’ that the PCUSA does not embrace in our policy about our immigrant sisters and brothers, but also a legal status, a designation provided by the adopted state.”
Therein lies the apparent crux of General Assembly officials’ problem with all published translations of the Bible. None of those translations gives Scriptural warrant for the rights that these officials wish to accord persons who enter the United States illegally. Ergo their solution: make up one’s own translation.
“Using the translation ‘immigrant’ simply makes the text more intelligible to a modern audience,” Woods said.
Meyer thanked Woods for her straightforward response. “I appreciate your honesty and candor in disclosing that it was your own personal interpretation and your rationale behind making such an interpretation.” He then identified himself as a Presbyterian elder from Arizona who does not pretend to be a Hebrew scholar, but has a deep love for Scripture and knows the culture in which he lives.
Illegal immigration begets crime wave
“I believe most Arizonans welcome immigrants of all nationalities and race, particularly Hispanic,” he said. “The concern has only to do with the illegal immigration occurring and how best to address that issue.”
Meyer pointed out that more than 1,000 people are crossing the border illegally every day, “with 87 percent of those being apprehended having criminal records.” Phoenix suffers a crime rate 5 or 6 times higher than that of New York City, he said. The city experienced 316 kidnappings in 2009, “and most of those kidnapped were illegal immigrants or linked to the drug trade.”
“My personal preference would be for the federal government to fulfill their responsibilities in this regard and effectively address the problem, as opposed to individual states having to assume the responsibility, but that is not happening,” said Meyer.
On piety and politics
Meyer pointed out that “the Arizona law simply mirrors existing federal law, except that it raises the standard of enforcement to guard against the violation of human rights.” He cited a recent Pew Research Poll showing that 73 percent of voting Americans favor Arizona’s immigration law, as do the majority of Arizonans, including, he noted, “Hispanics who came here legally are an important and integral part of our culture, and are also concerned about the illegal immigration.”
He expressed his hope that denominational officials might pursue their political positions with greater care for opinions held by the membership they purportedly represent, and that when they choose to bolster their position with Scripture, they not use “language that does not exist in any known translation,” lest their work be “interpreted as being contrived in order to support a political view.”
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