BBC NEWS | UK | Canterbury backs updated Bible

I Thought This Was A Joke:

Have you heard about the "Good As New" Bible? When I read about this at Daniel's website, I assumed it was a joke; he linked to a WorldNet story about it which I figured was a parody at the expense of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Apparently not. It really does exist, and it really does have St. Paul advising fornication:

There's nothing wrong with remaining single, like me. But if you know you have strong needs, get yourself a partner. Better than being frustrated.

That last sentence is more usually rendered, 'It is better to marry than to burn.' Obviously frustration is what Paul was talking about, right?

The Archbishop of Canterbury went on to say, "Instead of being taken into a specialised religious frame of reference... we have here a vehicle for thinking and worshiping that is fully earthed, recognisably about our humanity."

Is that not a warning, rather than praise? Is becoming "fully earthed" what the faith was meant to be about? When I was a boy, the stories I was taught were that Jesus passed through the earth, and ascended into Heaven.

That was meant to be the goal for us too, as I understood it. We were meant to pass through the earth, not to root ourselves in it. The hope was to leave behind earthly things, in the grave if not before, and to ascend some day into Heaven. Surely that hope and vision was the important thing about the faith. Surely that was the thing not to be lost.