A La Carte (9/2)

  • Tim Challies
  • 09/02/09
  • 3
Updated NIV in 2011
Everyone’s talking about it. “Biblica, the Committee on Bible Translation and evangelical publisher Zondervan jointly announced the newest New International Version Bible — and acknowledged they were still singed by the fire and brimstone cast down on earlier update efforts.” In other words, the TNIV will disappear and will be replaced by a new revision of the NIV. Check out CBMW for reactions by Randy Stinson, Al Mohler and Ligon Duncan.
Media Ignoring Conservative Dominance
This article shows how the media is ignoring the obvious conservative dominance of the New York Times list of bestsellers. “The left is reeling from this regression to the pre-Bush days, which also saw conservative dominance of the bestsellers lists. From 1991 to 2001, there were eight overtly conservative books that topped the NYT list, while only two liberal authors, Al Franken and Hillary Clinton, managed to publish number-one bestsellers.”
Quitting Social Media
Owen Strachan looks at an article in the Times which tells about how and why people are quitting Facebook and other social media.
Deal of the Day: Free Audio Bible
This month’s free download from ChristianAudio is GOD’S WORD Heard! New Testament audio bible. I am not familiar with the translation so cannot vouch for its accuracy (or lack thereof).

Comments (3)

1
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Mason • 09/02 @ 10:31am
› visit my web site.

Honestly I’ll be sad to see the TNIV go, it is a far better translation than people give it credit for (even beyond the gender inclusive language).

Hopefully many of the advances made with the TNIV will carry over into the 2011 NIV. Now if only they could do a better job with Paul…

2
Anonymous's picture
a comment from J.P.H. • 09/02 @ 11:10am
› visit my web site.

Re: conservative books vs. liberal books.

The article notes that conservative titles topped the bestseller list prior to the Bush presidency, and that they’re now just returning to that state. Is it any surprise that the “opposition” gets more books published when an “enemy” president is in the White House?

He also emphasizes how liberals supposedly shouted it from the roof tops when the bestseller list was top heavy with liberal titles, but are now silent now that things have swung back the other way. This is ostensibly evidence of bias. I have two thoughts on this. One, I think he overstates the hoopla made by the press during the Bush years about the popularity of liberal titles. I don’t remember hearing about this at all. Second, if it really was reported to a greater degree than this most recent return to conservative titles, that may be because it was actually more newsworthy. As the article states, conservative titles had ruled for the last ten years prior (and possibly even further back than that). So it was a comparatively “bigger deal” that suddenly the best seller lists began to skew liberal.

The article may also misrepresent the actual facts. I just went to Amazon and did a search for best sellers in the “Nonfiction” category. Here’s the breakdown:

#1: (Conservative) Glenn Beck’s Common Sense#2: (Liberal) Daybreak by David Swanson#3: (Conservative) Culture of Corruption by Malkin#5: (Conservative) End the Fed by Ron Paul#11: (Conservative) Liberty and Tyranny by Levin#21: (Liberal) Zeitoun by Eggers (arguable)#22: (Conservative) 5000 Year Leap by Skousen#23: (Liberal) The Family by Sharlett#25: (Conservative) Catastrophe by Morris & McGann

In the article he mentions Beck’s, Malkin’s, Paul’s, Levin’s and Morris/McGann’s books, but none of the three liberal titles that are also in the top 25.

3
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Tim Challies • 09/03 @ 10:35am

JPH,

I think it also bears mention, though, that the majority of the liberal bestsellers merited further mention in the Times (i.e. they reviewed most of them). But the conservative ones get no mention beyond just appearing on the list.