Bible Libel Lawsuit

[jesus_h_biscuit]

Can you sue the Almighty's publishers?
SOURCE: http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/religion_theseeker/2008/07/can-you-sue-the.htmlIf you can't sue the Lord for libel, what are your options? A Michigan man is about to find out. Bradley

Comments

[city_of_dis]

This made my day and week, could make my month and will make my decade, if he wins. However, seriously, if you're taking that approach, you'd better bring up how Leviticus says you should kill the faggots.

[blt4success66]

I don't know if I should laugh, cry, or shake my head in disbelief.

While I have to admit this guy might have a leg to stand on, it's no different than those publications that promote the hatred of those of differing ethnic or religious backgrounds.

Honestly, this the toughest thing about me being gay; holding on to my religion and trying to justify my homosexuality.

It's a tough call.

[tilia_tomentosa]

Now I am intrigued - I mean coming across an English-speaking gay man (are you American?) who hasn't become an atheist yet. Why should you "justify" your homosexuality? I am a Christian, and I just accept it as a fact that has nothing to do with religion - am I unconventional or what?

[soappuppy]

That is unbelievably funny, and I deeply sympathise with the idea, but I'd have to say I'm against holding publishers liable for the contents of the books they publish.

The contents of that book are the creation, and, therefore, the problem of the author(s), not the publisher; while the publisher did choose to put out and promote the book, the original author(s) were the ones who thought up and/or wrote down the hateful, stupid ideas. If only it were possible to bring that action against the author(s)....

This sounds like a wonderful idea, but I'd hate to live in a world where publishers were afraid to publish something because of possibly being held liable if it annoys, offends, or perturbs someone. <3 freedom of speech :)

[monsterbrain]

The publishers are responsible for the translations, though.

After all, the source material hasn't changed (in the last several centuries, at least) but they're editing and changing their translations of it.

I'd kind of like to see their shitty translation methods explained in court.

I took a Bible studies class in college (approaching it like literature, not in a devotional sense) and learned that in the earliest available texts, homosexuality is not "an abomination" as current translations read, but merely on the level of eating pork or fucking a woman who's on the rag. It's "unclean."

Not that I give a shit what bronze-age tribesmen have to say about it, anyway.

[soappuppy]

> The publishers are responsible for the translations, though.

See, that's the part I didn't know, 'cause I'm not generally given to reading that particular book. I figgered some idiot got hold of it, added a few "thous" and "thees" and a "sodomy will get your face melted clean off by Satan" and then sent it to a publisher. Bad me.

Either way, I've always been a big fan of the "kill them all, and start over with amoebas" theory of social discourse.

[fzks_cub]

shouldn't he be suing the translators/editors, not the publishers?

we all know it'll never go anywhere with all the fundies infecting the judicial branch, unfortunately...

the bible has ruined a fuckton of lives tho, so a guy can dream...

[pagerbear]

I have always said that, if there were no religion, the haters would always find something to back up their hate. I'm not much of a Bible lover, but still this doesn't really hold water for me.