“The International Bible Society said Monday that America’s best-selling modern Bible is about to get an update using gender-neutral wording, despite past criticism of that idea from conservatives,” Newsday reports. “The revision will be called ‘Today’s New International Version,’ or TNIV. The original ‘New International Version,’ which has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide since 1978, will remain on the market.

The New Testament of the latest version goes on sale in April with the full Bible including Old Testament books expected by 2005.”

Reaction to the news has been mixed:

[…]Randy Stinson, executive director of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, a Louisville, Ky., group that works to preserve gender specific language, said Monday he had not yet seen the revisions but was concerned that word meanings may have been altered.

‘This is incredibly serious to evangelicals, how the Bible is translated,’ Stinson said. ‘We believe the Bible is the word of God, so changing these things deliberately is dangerous.’

[…]Examples of some changes from 1978 to 2002: ‘sons of God’ to ‘children of God’ in Matthew 5:9, and ‘a man is justified by faith” to ‘a person is justified by faith’ in Romans 3:28.

*Sigh* More needless PC silliness…

Coming soon! “A New Testament for people with Disabilities.” “…And God said, let there be [that strong feeling of warmth that washes over your visage].”