A gay man has filed a $70 million lawsuit against two Bible publishers, claiming their translations of the Bible calling homosexuality a sin caused him emotional distress.
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The man, Bradley LaShawn Fowler, claims the publishers, Zondervan and Thomas Nelson, have manipulated scripture with the use of the term homosexuals in certain revised editions of the Bible.
Fowler alleges that the term homosexual was deleted in later versions by Zondervan but in their 1982 and 1987 translations the publisher uses the term in First Corinthians 6:9 incorrectly, Liberty Voice reported. The older King James Version, from which his family pastor preaches, has caused him to be cast away by his family for its use of the word homosexual.
As a result of suffering 20 years of mental instability and emotional duress, Fowler is suing $60 million from Zondervan and $10 million from Thomas Nelson Publishing.
Zondervans spokesperson, Tara Powers, dismissed his claims.
Since Zondervan does not translate the Bible or own the copyright for any of the translations we publish, we are not in a position to comment on the merits of how a word should or should not be translated, she said. We rely on the scholarly judgment of the highly respected and credible translation committees behind each translation and never alter the text of the translations we are licensed to publish.
Other gay activists simply wrote their own gay-friendly Bible called the Queen James Version.
The Queen James Bible resolves any homophobic interpretations of the Bible, a website promoting the book states. We wanted to make a book filled with the word of God that nobody could use to incorrectly condemn Gods LGBT children, and we succeeded.