| Director | Sharon Roggio |
|---|---|
| Genre | LGBT-related film, documentary film |
| Country | United States |
Following two Christian researchers, Kathy Baldock and Ed Oxford, the documentary's premise is that the Christian Bible was allegedly mistranslated in 1946, misaligning religious and cultural perceptions of LGBTQ people in the United States and anti-LGBT rhetoric around the world.
In 1946, the National Council of Churches brought together biblical scholars and prominent institutions (including Yale Divinity School) to modernize the Bible for contemporary readers. The film argues that for the creation of this Revised Standard Version (RSV), two rare Koine Greek words— and , which the researchers believe refer to abusive behaviors and exploitative relationships respectively—were allegedly mistranslated to encompass consenting same-sex relationships, in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10. The word homosexual is alleged to have been used to reflect contemporary biases instead of history or linguistics. It was the first time it appeared in any translation of the Bible.
The film contains interviews with biblical scholars, linguists, religious leaders, theologians, and David Fearon: a man who had challenged the translation as a seminary student in 1959, but was told by scholars then that while it was possibly inaccurate, "the damage had already been done." The RSV became widely adopted across the United States, influencing culture, public policy, and theology. Further translations, such as the 1970s' New International Version, kept using homosexual, with "damning effect".