Time to Turn’s new twist on the Bible

If they lived in Iran and the book were the Qur’an, they might be looking down the barrel of a fatwa.

Instead, the Dutch college students and young adults are watching the consternation caused by their newly published expurgated Bible with wonder.

The young men and women are part of a Christian group in the Netherlands that calls itself Time to Turn. It, in turn, is part of a larger, global Christian network known as SPEAK.

Both are grass-roots youth movements seeking to spread responsible consumerism and social justice. To that end, Time to Turn recently established the Western Bible Foundation to publish what they titled “The Western Bible.”

The book is not another translation among many modern-day translations of Christian scripture. It has literally excised every difficult passage — from the book of Isaiah through St. John’s Revelation — having anything to do with Christian obligations concerning money, possessions and fiscal justice.

Where those texts once occurred remain neither passage nor paper. In their place, readers find only gaping holes.

A press release heralding the Dutch- language-only holy book raised howls of protests far outside the sphere of its Dutch-reading audience.

In the announcement, chairman of the Western Bible Foundation, a Mr. De Rijke, explains the reason for the new publication.

“Jesus was very inspiring for our inner health, but we don’t need to take his naïve remarks about money seriously. He didn’t study economics, obviously,” he says.

Besides, De Rijke says, what Christian takes such texts literally? What Christian gives his possessions — or sells them and gives the proceeds — to the poor?

“The Western Bible,” explains the press release, is simply a response to the desire of so many churches these days “to be market-oriented” and appealing. Time to Turn and the Western Bible Foundation took up the mantle accordingly to “boldly go where no one else has gone before.”

“Finally,” wrote blogger Marc van der Woude from Utrecht, “we have a Bible that really matches the lifestyle of 21st century Western Christianity.”

If the Trekkie mission statement appropriated by the Western Bible Foundation wasn’t tip-off enough that something more was afoot, the names of the foundation’s chairman and board members — at the very least for Dutch readers — should have been.

Among their names are De Rijke’s, which in English translates to “rich,” and Fortuijn, which, you guessed it, means “fortune.”

But unlike van der Woude, a lot of Christians have been slow to grasp the irony. Some have used their blogs or the blogs of others to protest or to channel prophecy about the new Bible.

“I believe the following texts speak for themselves,” Barbara Scholten, a Dutch-born missionary working in São Paulo, Brazil, wrote on van der Woude’s blog before quoting Deuteronomy 4:2 (“You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it...”) and Revelation 22:18 and 19, which echoes it: “If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life.”

On a Baptist message board, one lone soul tries to offer reassurance to others who are ringing their hands.

“The whole thing is an attempt at satire,” explains the writer from somewhere in Oklahoma. “[It’s] an attempt to get folks immersed in the culture of Western materialism to realize they’ve missed some of the core teachings of the Bible.”

But in Toronto and elsewhere, others cling to their misgivings. “I guess I might give them some credit for a creative way of making their point,” reads a Canadian’s response. “But I’m not so sure this is necessarily the best way to make it.”

All the fuss has taken Time to Turn by surprise. In a press release dated Oct. 24, its chairman, Frank Mulder, is quoted as saying: “Many Christians accept the Western lifestyle, including the degradation of creation and the injustice of our trade, and they only take the easy parts of the gospel. But it isn’t until we publish this gospel with holes [in it] that they get confused.”

Me? I think it’s a brainstorm. As the flower-child prophet Joni Mitchell sang of old, so often “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” Maybe the Time to Turn generation will do better at changing that.

“Our way of living is at odds with the way God wants us to live and treat His creation,” laments the English-language page of the group’s web site. “It’s time we opened our eyes to reality and change: It’s Time to Turn!”

As they see it, the divide between the rich and the poor is increasing; species of both plants and animals are facing extinction; and land, air, oceans and other waterways are being threatened because of our incor- rigible greed. It’s time to turn.

“The Western Bible,” its pub- lishers say, “is a serious joke.”

Now the group is preparing a companion Bible study based on the “dangerous parts of the gospel” cut from the text. Like an earlier Bible study available online from the group, I hope it, too, will be offered in English.

The study, titled “The Art of Enjoying What You Have,” preceded the publication of “The Western Bible,” but it shares similar themes. It looks at what scripture — and in particular Jesus — has to say about human frailties such as envy, hoarding and gluttony.

Why is it, the study asks, that we never seem to think we have enough?

It quotes from Proverbs 28: “A greedy man stirs up dissension but he who trusts in the Lord will prosper. He who gives to the poor will lack nothing but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.” It recommends Christian principles of tithing, hospitality and charity.

“We are managers of our money and goods; not owners. She proposes simple ways to begin to curb our consumption and to be more fiscally responsible: drive less, eat less meat, buy fair-trade products,” says the lesson’s author, Martine Vonk.

“Or,” she asks at the end of her study, “do you still want to have as much as possible for the least amount of money?”

Writer and theologian G.K. Chesterton is famous for his contention that “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”

It looks as though there’s a growing movement of young Christians who are aiming with God’s help and grace to give it their best shot.

· MICHÈLE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She can be reached at [email protected].