This action was probably inevitable.

The right with its strong proclaimed proclivities for Christianity and devotion to biblical principles just had to make an effort to shift the focus in the wake of so many years of theologians such as Reinhold Niebuhr quoting the words of Jesus Christ with such pronouncements as loving one’s enemies and forgiveness.

On a few occasions I had great fun with some fire breathing rightists on the Internet. This came when they predictably hurled those same incendiary verbal grenades in the direction of William Jefferson Clinton, vicious words of hatred mingled with some profanity, all the while assigning him to perdition for daring to stray from his marital bonds.

I responded that the words of Christ were filled with forgiveness and suggested that they read the New Testament before making such angry declarations and damning Bill Clinton to the eternal fires of hell. Such an approach resulted in no response. Robertson, Limbaugh, O’Reilly and Hannity had not provided them with a programmed response.

According to an Associated Press story reported December 4 there is good news in right wing Bible land. According to the Conservative Bible Project there is maneuvering room for translation in the wake of long quoted New Testament passages such as that of the Gospel of Luke of Jesus Christ showing boundless mercy for his killers: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

Andy Schlafly, son of longtime right wing matriarch Phyllis, is the founder of Conservapedia.com, the Conservative Bible Project’s online home. The project’s authors argue that contemporary scholars have turned the words of Jesus into little more than a well meaning social worker uttering platitudes.

“Professors are the most liberal group of people in the world,” Schlafly contends, “and it’s professors who are doing the popular modern translations of the Bible.”

Schlafly’s contention flies in the face of the fact that these translations he finds objectionable and distorted to comport with liberal ideology have existed for centuries, unchallenged up to the current days of Schlafly’s Conservapedia.com.

Experts who have devoted their lives to the unraveling of the Scriptures are skeptical of the current efforts of Schlafly and his amateur rightist Bible sleuths.

Timothy Paul Jones, a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, who defines himself as a “theological conservative” asserted, “This is not making scripture understandable to people today, it’s reworking scripture to support a particular political or social agenda.”

Schlafly and his crew have a long and arduous climb ahead of them. After all, consider the frequently recited biblical parable of “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”

That sounds downright socialistic, doesn’t it, Andy Schlafly? Better get to work and change that fast.