By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A homosexual man is suing two national Christian publishers, claiming that he suffered emotional pain and mental instability due to their versions of the Bible which portray homosexuality as a sin.
According to a report by USA Today and World Net Daily, Bradley LaShawn Fowler, 39, of Canton, Michigan, is seeking $60 million from Zondervan Publishing and $10 million Thomas Nelson Publishing.
Fowler is alleging that recent revisions of Zondervan’s Bibles, which refer to homosexuality as a sin, have made him an outcast from his family and contributed to “periods of demoralization, chaos and bewilderment.” His allegations against Thomas Nelson are similar, and refer to their New King James Bible.
Fowler claims that the publisher’s editions reflect an individual or group opinion designed to cause “me or anyone who is a homosexual to endure verbal abuse, discrimination, episodes of hate, and physical violence … including murder,” Fowler wrote.
According to JoAnne Thomas of RightPundits.com, Fowler explained his complaint on his blog last year which refer to I Corinthians 6:9.
In 1970, I Corinthians 6:9 read: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers [sic], nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.”
In 1982 ,the same scripture read: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodimites [sic].
In 2001, the scripture read: “Surely you know that the people who do wrong will not inherit God’s kingdom. Do not be fooled, those who sin sexually, worship idols, take part in adultery, those who are male prostitutes, or men who have sexual relations with other men, those who steal, are greedy, get drunk, lie about others, or rob these [sic] people will not inherit God’s kingdom.”
The suit was filed the same day that a U.S. District Judge Julian Abele Cook, Jr. refused to appoint an attorney to represent Fowler in his case against Thomas Nelson. “The Court has some very genuine concerns about the nature and efficacy of these claims,” the judge wrote.
Both civil complaints were dismissed because Fowler did not file his complaints before the three-year federal statute of limitations expired, however, he filed a similar lawsuit against Tyndale House Publishers in January and is still seeking $10 million in damages.
Fowler wrote on his blog: “[W]hen William Tyndale Publishing [sic], Inc., Zondervan Publishing, Inc., and Thomas Nelson Publishing, Inc. began revising the scriptures, each publisher implemented the term homosexuals within its Bible, yet failed to follow what the scripture teaches about doing so. As a result, homosexuals have endured a life long struggle of being accepted within the American culture.”
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