Greenbelt Interfaith News
    U.S. Brief

    July 31, 1997

    Plans Dropped for Gender-Inclusive Bible

    The International Bible Society (IBS) announced on May 27 that it has dropped plans to make the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible gender-neutral. The society had earlier announced that it would revise the popular translation in order to render certain terms referring to humanity as gender-inclusive, believing that this more accurately reflected the original text. Some Christian evangelicals, though, criticized the plans, citing instances where they believed such a policy would require the IBS to depart from a literal translation of the original text.

    "We deeply care about the concerns of church leaders, scholars and Christian readers who favor gender-related language changes," said Lars Dunberg, president of the IBS. "However, this decision comes from our internal conviction that to move ahead would cause division within the body of Christ and therefore compromise our mission to serve the church in the U.S. and abroad."

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    ©1997 Heather Elizabeth Peterson