Making God Politically Correct : The editors of a new Bible seek to install a kind of bisexual regency in heaven.

Two decades ago, several professors at Harvard Divinity School wondered aloud whether God was dead. After lengthy tomes and frenetic articles, the inquiry came to naught. But the ingenuity of politically correct theologians should not be underestimated.

Today’s chic academics, not content with rewriting American history and purifying the speech of university students and the elite media, have turned back 2,000 years plus to straighten out the Bible and degender God.

In an effort to make the Scriptures embrace all people, as they put it, a band of six politically correct American Protestant zealots have edited “The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version (1995).” Though published by Oxford University Press, this “inclusive” effort lacks the imprimatur of the National Council of Churches or any other religious body.

The editors’ laudable compassion for the downtrodden--particularly women, the poor, people of color and the handicapped--reaches beyond efforts to improve their condition, to what the liberation theologians have called the “preferential option for the poor.”

They seek to liberate these groups, whom they see as victims, from the burden of words that further exclude or demean them. But their concern goes far beyond rightfully condemning abusive epithets directed against any group or class--including, one might add, the rich and powerful.

To make the Scriptures user-friendly and accessible to all, they replace or rephrase “all gender-specific language not referring to particular historical individuals and all pejorative references to race, color, religion” or “physical disability.”

To embrace women, the editors dethroned God the Father and begin the Lord’s Prayer with “Our Father-Mother in heaven,” installing a kind of bisexual regency. The Son of Man becomes “the Human One.” In the Sermon on the Mount, all references to brother are rendered as “brother or sister” or “sister or brother.”

The simple benediction in 2 John 3 becomes: “Grace, mercy and peace will be with us from God the Father-Mother and from Jesus Christ, Child of the Father-Mother.”

The 23rd Psalm’s “The Lord is my shepherd,” now reads “God is my shepherd,” and the pronoun he is dropped entirely.

In the 63rd Psalm, “Thy right hand upholds me” becomes “your strong hand upholds me,” since references to the right hand of God may offend left-handed persons, presumably including George Bush and Bill Clinton.

The editors downgrade male authority, indeed human authority generally, because it demeans or subordinates women. They prefer “dominion” to “kingdom” because a king is a male figure. They reduce the mentions of “lord” and “master” because these words connote masculine control or slavery.

The new version says children should not “obey” their parents but simply “heed” them. This modest change would give small comfort to American teen-agers addicted to MTV.

It eliminates all references to “darkness” that are equated with sin, evil or ignorance because darkness, they claim, is associated with dark-skinned people, who, as a result, have been called darkies.

The editors of the New Testament also attempt to exorcise references to Jews as unbelievers, especially in the Gospel of John, to “minimize what could be perceived as a warrant for anti-Jewish bias.” Shades of misguided efforts to censor Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.”

Inclusiveness in a society or in a religious community is a virtue, but where is the evidence for the claim that the Judeo-Christian Scriptures have lacked universal appeal? Luke 4:18 proclaims “release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,” reflecting the words of Isaiah.

The Bible necessarily reflects the patriarchal times in which it was written, but the Old and New Testaments include abundant references to strong and virtuous women, and the message of compassion and redemption is clearly addressed to them as well as to men.

Somehow the Bible has managed to get through to men and women, to the lame and the blind, to slaves and slaveholders, and those of every clime and color, as today’s 2.8 billion biblical believers attest.

Tampering with these historic and revered texts in the name of a current fad is an insult to history and an affront to Christians and Jews.