I’m continuing to see a lot of very productive dialogue on the TNIV. I really think that Jim Dobson thought he could stomp the TNIV out of existence by using Focus on the Family as a sledgehammer. After all, he has a huge mailing list and an equally impressive (and impressionable) listening audience. But it now seems like bloggers are starting to flex the same muscle they’ve shown on a number of issues. Am I saying the Dobson and Focus are the “mainstream media” of evangelicalism? Perhaps ….

Anyway, Tim Bednar offers these thoughts:

I just feel embracing the TNIV is something worthwhile for the emerging church. I honestly feel that the TNIV translation somehow spiritual parallels what some of us in the emerging church hope this phenomenon/movement will accomplish. I think Ben Irwin is right; the TNIV somehow fits into the same spiritual stream as the emerging church.

I am fully away of the “pitfalls” of any translation–I just prefer to error on the side that speaks best to people like me, my friends and those who currently who are NOT in conversation with many of those who are criticizing the TNIV. And anyone who is intellectually honest would say that they love certain translations because they support THEIR agenda.

Hugo Schwyzer expands on this point:

When those who love the NIV get riled up about the inclusiveness of the TNIV, they are ignoring the logs in their own eyes. Though our favorite translations often say more about our politics than our faith, it’s fairly clear that all of us — left and right alike — are guilty of attempting to use Scripture to support our own social agendas. None of us — particularly those of us who can’t read the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek — can say we “know” what Bible “really” says. It would behoove all of us to stop our “proof-texting” (quoting Scripture out of context) and stop dropping in misleading subject headings and encourage better understanding of the original languages.

It’s nice to finally here someone address the core issues of this controversey instead of just launching rhetorical grenades at each other.

Via