Chapter 12 of the book:
The Failure of the Great Amish and Conservative Mennonite Dress Experiment
Why Christian Conservatism Isn’t the Answer and What to Do
The Bigger Picture of the Failure of Christian Conservatism: Sexual Abuse in Other Denominations, Megachurches and Homeschool Groups
The bigger picture of the failure of Christian conservatism is that sexual abuse and other moral failures is happening in other Christian conservative groups. It appears that that rate of sexual abuse among conservative homeschoolers and other conservative groups is as high as the rate of sexual abuse among Amish and conservative Mennonites.
It was as I studied sexual abuse in other denominations, megachurches and homeschool groups that I was better able to see bigger picture of the failure of Christian conservatism and adding man made rules, and select commands from the Old Testament Law to Christ’s commands.
Are you looking for something more than just the same old concepts, interpretations, explanations, and perspectives you have heard regurgitated over and over again? This website will give you some new insights and things to think about. You may not agree with everything you read, but Biblical Research Reports will stimulate your thinking. Our goal is to help you to formulate in your own mind what is Jesus’ truth as you look at the research we share on the various subjects facing the Church.
We see the Mennopornite Syndrome happening in these Christian conservative groups as well. There is the same pattern of sexual failures that we see happening among the Amish and Mennonites that is happening in these conservative groups as they set up man made rules such as rules of modesty, regulated dress, courtship, and unbiblical control by the conservative church leaders, especially over the women. These conservative Christian leaders then hold their people accountable to follow these man made rules by implying that they are following Christ when they do so. They often have strong discipline for those who do not follow these rules. Often, too, the conservative Christian leaders pick and choose commands from the Old Testament Law and from Christ’s commands in the New Testament and ignore other commands that God has given to us in the New Testament. In the process they make a hybrid set of “Biblical” commands that their people must follow. This sets up the leader as the one who is followed ahead of Jesus.
A group of conservative homeschoolers walking down the street in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia during homeschool week. Conservative Christian groups that require the women and girls to dress in dresses or skirts tend to have a high rate of sexual abuse as well. I used to think that girls and women who dressed in dresses and skirts were more Godly. Now I feel sorry for them and the large number of sexual abuse victims in many of these groups. They have been deceived.
From my research, it seems that the more conservative a religious group is, whether Christian or some other religion, the more likely there is to be sexual abuse happening in secret.
What is significant is that sexual abuse is often handled in a similar way in these groups as what it is in Amish or conservative Mennonite churches. A significant effort is made by the leadership to cover-up the sexual abuse. The victims are often told to forgive and forget. Many of the cases that we will look at are not documented court cases like they were with the Amish and Mennonites, but rather are personal testimonies of sexual abuse. Some people may try to discredit some or all of these accounts as being unproven and as being gossip or slander. As you read these accounts, ask yourself: if this sexual abuse account was made up, would these be details that a person would include in a made-up story who did not know about a pattern of how sexual abuse cases are handled by conservative groups? I believe that most people will hear a ring of authenticity in the details that are shared in each story.
What is also interesting to note, too, is that these conservative Christian groups have a wide range of views on salvation, from Calvinism to Arminian and various shades in between. The sins of sexual abuse cannot be blamed on their view of salvation.
The stories of moral failure that we will look at highlight the failure of conservatism and its ideology as, one by one, conservative leaders and/or some of the lay people in their congregations are falling into sexual and moral failure.
When a spiritual leader is involved in sin, whether it is pornography or some other moral failure, their perception of right and wrong is perverted. God tells us that “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” (Titus 1:15-16) Because of their sin, these men will require strict standards of control on their people such as strict internet controls, parent monitored courtship, extra modest dress, extra modest baptisms, limiting the social interaction of teenage guys and girls, etc.
These men, because they are defiled, do not know what is pure and acceptable behavior and what is not.
The following is part of the bigger picture of the moral failure that happens in secret among groups with a conservative mindset that add manmade rules to Christ’s commands in the New Testament. “Ye shall know them by their fruits”. (Matthew 7:16)
Doug Phillips and Vision Forum
A major sexual abuse case in the conservative Christian homeschool movement was the sexual abuse by Doug Phillips, the founder and leader of Vision Forum. Phillips was an influential leader in the conservative homeschool movement, and admitted to having a lengthy extra-marital affair with another woman. It started when she was in her teens and worked for Doug Phillips. This was a bombshell in the conservative home school community. Phillips was an extremely influential leader in the Biblical Patriarchy movement, a part of conservative evangelical Christianity that believes men should have “dominion” over women. The girls and women were required to wear skirts or dresses.
Biblical Patriarchy also strongly promotes courtship as opposed to dating. With the courtship model, parents exert a lot of control over the selection of a spouse for their children. Some practice what are basically arranged marriages. During the courtship process, to protect the couple from becoming involved sexually, some are not allowed to touch each other and are not allowed to be alone together. The couple either does things together with one of their families or they have a chaperone.
This courtship model has been a failure. The two young people get married without being able to talk together on a deeper level without someone else listening in on their conversation. If a guy can’t be trusted to be alone with a girl before they are married, he can’t be trusted to be faithful to his wife after they are married. That is illustrated in Josh Duggar’s life which we will look at a little later. Two of the men who were the biggest promoters of courtship, Bill Gothard and Doug Phillips, were involved in sexual harassment and abuse for years while they were selling the courtship model as a more Godly and safe method than dating.
More about Doug Phillips’ affair and his teachings on Biblical Patriarchy can be found in these articles:
www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/07/doug-phillips-affair_n_4235191.html
www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-ingersoll/doug-phillips-the-big-scandal_b_4195155.html
The Atlantic Wire explains the significance of the moral failure of Doug Phillips:
“It is difficult to overstate how fundamentally an extramarital affair damaged Phillips’s reputation in the short term. That’s because Vision Forum’s work centered around the ‘restoration of the Christian household.’ In short, the organization enforced what it would argue is a Biblically-based family structure where the husband serves as the spiritual and practical head of the household. His wife and children, especially any daughters not yet of marrying age, live under his dominion. Phillips’s family, like the well-known Duggars, were also practicing Quiverfull adherents. That movement holds up procreation as the highest calling for (properly married) women, meaning that Quiverfull families grow quite large. Phillips has eight children, and the Duggars have 19 kids. Adherents usually home-school their children, rejecting the notion that anyone but the family and God should have input into a child’s education. Family is central to, and the mission of, Vision Forum’s entire reason for existence.”
The Full Quiver doctrine is part of the Biblical Patriarchy movement. There is rampant sexual abuse occurring in these conservative Christian homeschool groups as well. It is when we see the same moral failures in all the different brands of Christian conservatism that we realize that Jesus was right in condemning conservatism and warning us to stay away from those teachings. The great conservative Christian experiment and doctrine in our day has failed.
Bill Gothard – Institute In Basic Life Principles (IBLP) and Advanced Training Institute (ATI)
Sexual abuse, immorality and false teachings, like in many other conservative Christian groups, was also rampant in the conservative homeschool organization Advanced Training Institute (ATI) that was headed by Bill Gothard. Bill Gothard’s conservative organization had a history of immorality and sexual abuse that goes back many years. Like a number of other conservative groups, Bill Gothard stressed modesty and required girls and women in ATI families to wear skirts or dresses most of the time. He was strong on obeying and being under authority, especially for girls and women and those who worked for his organization. Gothard also taught courtship instead of dating and taught fathers how to control the courtship process, including how to interview prospective young men who were interested in their daughters. Our family used the ATI curriculum until God directed us to leave the organization in 2005.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s before ATI was started, there were 14 senior and long term staff people who were involved in known sexual immorality who worked closely with Bill Gothard. This gross and perverse immorality had continued for at least seven years that Bill Gothard knew about it and perhaps as long as 14 years. Bill Gothard kept them on as staff because they were producing materials that brought in millions of dollars each year to the organization.
The sexual immorality of these 14 staff persons and that of Bill Gothard has significantly influenced some of the teachings and publications of IBLP and ATI. As serious as all of this is, the sexual immorality, sexual abuse and sexual harassment in Gothard’s organization has been much more extensive than anyone imagined. There are many people that have come forward and exposed sexual impropriety by Bill Gothard, his brother Steve Gothard, staff at Headquarters, staff at training centers, and in ATI homeschool families.
The following is a brief synopsis and is not intended to cover all the evidence and documentation that is available.
- Over 50 women have come forward and stated that they were sexually harassed or sexually abused by Bill Gothard.
http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/duggar-church-ati-iblp-147591
- Bill Gothard, over the years, had many pretty, young 14 to 16 year old girls as his personal secretaries. Gothard’s sister was the official secretary that he told us about so that we thought he was above reproach. However, unknown to us, these girls served him in the early morning when he went to the office at 5:00am until his sister came in at normal starting time, and in the evening, after his sister left the office, until 10:00 or 11:00 at night. These girls were often alone with Gothard and he would sit next to them on the sofa in his office with his thigh pressed against theirs. His teachings on authority, the “chain of command” and the “umbrella of protection”, along with their lack of experience and wisdom, allowed him to control these young girls and get them to follow his every wish and command. If one stood up to him, she was immediately let go and another took her place. None of the girls have stepped forward and stated that Bill Gothard went as far as having sexual intercourse with them.
http://www.recoveringgrace.org/2014/02/chronology-of-favorites/
- Bill Gothard covered up his brother Steve’s sexual abuse of seven secretaries and aided Steve in sexually assaulting them by banishing Steve for his immorality to the Northwoods property to work on the Character Sketches books, and then sending secretaries to help him in his “work”. These women were then sexually abused by Steve. Now I understand why the content of the Character Sketches books never really appealed to me. They were written in total hypocrisy by persons who lacked character and were merely written academically to produce a product to make a lot of money off of it.
- The emphasis on skirts and dresses for ATI families was developed somewhere around 1980 and appears to have been part of the reimaging of Gothard’s ministry after the sex scandal broke about his brother. In the 1970’s, IBLP staff women wore pants.
Josh Duggar and the Duggar Family
Josh Duggar was educated in Bill Gothard’s ATI (Advanced Training Institute) homeschool program. His parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, had 19 children and were well known for their reality TV show, 19 Kids and Counting. They adhered to the Quiverfull, Patriarchy, and courtship teachings, and associated with Vision Forum. People were shocked in March of 2015 when the story came out that Josh, the oldest son, had sexually abused two of his sisters and three other girls when he was a teenager. He immediately confessed to having committed the sexual abuse, issued a “repentance” statement, stated that things had been taken care of years previous, and resigned from his job as Executive Director of Family Research Council Action, the nonprofit lobbying arm of the Family Research Council. The FRC, a conservative Christian organization led by Tony Perkins, is known for its advocacy against same-sex marriage, “with the mission to champion marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society.”
Many believed his repentance was genuine and stood in support behind him. He had said and done the right things.
Three months later, hackers released the names of subscribers to the Ashley Madison adultery website. It was revealed that Josh Duggar had spent almost $1000 over the previous two years soliciting adulterous affairs. He had canceled his subscription to the Ashley Madison website three months earlier when his actions of sexual abuse were revealed. Josh, 27, was married and had four children. He admitted to being unfaithful to his wife and to being addicted to pornography (and then immediately deleted his admission of pornography). People realized that his previous “repentance” statement about sexual abuse had been a fraud.
Bob Jones University, an illustration of the failure of Christian Conservatism
“For decades, officials at Bob Jones University told sexual assault victims that they were to blame for their abuse, and to not report it to the police because doing so would damage their families, churches and the university, according to a long-awaited independent report released Thursday.
“Bob Jones, an evangelical Christian institution in Greenville, S.C., displayed a “blaming and disparaging” attitude toward abuse victims, according to 56 percent of the 381 current and former students and employees who replied to a confidential survey and said they had knowledge of how the university handled abuse cases. About half the 166 people surveyed who identified themselves as abuse victims said the university actively discouraged them from going to the police.
“In interviews with investigators and in written comments, some respondents detailed hurtful, often startling treatment…
“In the survey, abuse victims were about evenly split between those who said the offense occurred before they arrived at Bob Jones, and those who said it took place while they were there; only 37 percent said the assailant was a student or employee of the university or its primary and secondary school. But in many cases, victims said they were assaulted as children by people within their churches, and were told by university officials that speaking out would hurt the Christian cause.” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/us/bob-jones-university-sex-assault-victim-study.html?_r=0
http://netgrace.org/wp-content/uploads/Final-Report.pdf
Some excerpts from the investigator’s report:
“A number of individuals, including some current and former faculty and students, expressed concern that BJU administrators and faculty have placed the onus of responsibility for men’s lust upon women. These investigation participants reported that these messages shift the responsibility for abuse from a perpetrator to a victim, and some investigation participants reported hearing messages about how a woman somehow triggered her abuse…”
“A former student stated, ‘Women always did something if they were raped or assaulted somehow: it was how they dressed, they were flirting – It was never the man’s fault….But it is always the woman’s fault if she is harassed or molested somehow – she did something wrong – flirted, wearing inappropriate clothing, said something suggestive – It always came back on the woman.’ A former student stated, ‘I was explicitly taught that men’s thoughts about me and my body were my responsibility, and that I could prevent lust by dressing a certain way.’ A former student and faculty member who grew up on the BJU campus stated, ‘As a 13 year old I couldn’t wear pants because of guys and their thoughts and I didn’t even know what that meant.’ Another student stated, ‘I heard a lot about modesty. The responsibility is on the female to keep the male chaste in my opinion.’” Page 48
“Sadly, blaming a victim for a perpetrator’s sin is one of the first and most common responses to sexual assault. This all too common problem was identified as an issue at BJU in survivor interviews during this investigation.” Page 56
“In the pre-2010 era, BJU appears to have largely defined sexual assault merely as ‘forcible rape.’ Therefore, a number of alleged sexual crimes were unrecognized, such as a nonconsensual sexual offense by an adult BJU student upon a sleeping victim, the molestation of a minor over the clothes by a young adult alleged perpetrator, consensual sexual contact between an adult and a minor, as well as the potential offense of soliciting a minor. The inability to recognize sexual crimes undoubtedly contributes to failures in reporting.” Page 191
“Most victims of sexual abuse came to Bob Jones University seeking a refuge from painful experiences, and seeking a deeper and more nurturing spiritual life. However, unfortunately, a number of victims of sexual abuse reported that their spiritual life was significantly harmed at BJU. In fact, during their interviews, numerous victims indicated that the university’s mishandling of their disclosures was in fact far worse than the sexual abuse itself. Victims referred to the university’s ‘showcase’ culture as something that perpetuated significant harm.” Page 210
http://netgrace.org/wp-content/uploads/Final-Report.pdf
Sexual Abuse in Baptist Churches, an example of the failure of Christian Conservatism
The following are some statistics from Baptist denominations.
“Recent sex scandals among Catholic and evangelical leaders are prompting renewed calls for action against clergy sexual abuse. But with research indicating such abuse is more prevalent among clergy — including Baptists — than other counseling professionals, abuse-victim advocates are asking if enough is being done.
“Comprehensive studies are difficult to find. But a 1993 survey by the Journal of Pastoral Care found that 14 percent of Southern Baptist ministers admitted to engaging in inappropriate sexual behavior. Seventy percent said they knew another minister who had.
“A 2000 Baptist General Convention of Texas report indicated more than 24 percent of ministers said they had counseled at least one person who had sexual contact with a minister. The BGCT report called the level of sexual abuse by clergy “horrific” and noted that “the disturbing aspect of all research is that the rate of incidence for clergy exceeds the client-professional rate for both physicians and psychologists.” (Emphasis added) Associated Baptist Press Dec. 6, 2006
www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1670&Itemid=119
It is indeed horrific that there is a higher rate of pastors sexually abusing people in their congregation than the rate of sexual abuse by non-Christian doctors and counselors. It is disgusting that these sins are more prevalent in the church and especially among church leaders than among those who do not even profess to be Christians.
A sign outside a Baptist church. Babysitting children is a perfect situation for sexual molesters to operate who “love” children. Sexual abuse is rampant in many Baptist churches as well.
StopBaptistPredators.org reports:“Clergy sexual misconduct is a serious problem in church life. While ministers live and serve with great integrity, some engage in the irresponsible exploitation of members who are in need of their spiritual guidance. According to one recent national survey of ministers, 35% had engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior. The Baptist General Convention of Texas receives frequent phone calls from churches and from Directors of Missions concerning clergy sexual misconduct. (Ninety-six percent of sexual exploitation by professionals is by a man in power who capitalizes on a woman’s trust…)”http://stopbaptistpredators.org/pdf_documents/brokentrust.pdf (p.7)
Parents need to be diligent in protecting their children regardless of what denomination or church they attend. One Baptist church had a big sign out front that read: “Friday Night is Date Night, Yes! We’ll baby sit”. Knowing what I know about sexual abuse among Baptists, I would never let that church babysit my children. Everything could be fine, but babysitting children on a Friday evening is a perfect situation for sexual molesters to operate who “love” children. We want our children to have friends and to experience a lot of opportunities. But sexual abuse is not one of those experiences!
Sexual Abuse in Christian Fundamentalism
Jeri Massi wrote an excellent book titled Schizophrenic Christianity Second Edition 2014, exposing sexual abuse in Fundamentalist churches. There are a number of parallels with the conservative mindset in Amish and Mennonite churches. The following are some excerpts from her book:
“Child molesting is covered up in Christian Fundamentalism, denied, excused, etc. It’s the big secret of Christian Fundamentalism, the largest skeleton in the closet.” (p.201)
“To become a pastor of a church is an ideal slot for a child molester or any other sexual deviant. Child molesters don’t hide in the background of life. They hide in the foreground. To get what they want, they must take on a role of prominence and trustworthiness. The idea of the stranger in the car who holds candy out the window to entice children has a very low occurrence in real life. Most victims are molested by somebody they know, and somebody their parents trust.
“Child molesters become Boy Scout leaders, teachers, teachers’ aides, coaches, and church workers. Becoming a pastor, if it is easy to do, is ideal for them. (p.80,81)
In addressing loyalty to leaders she has some excerpts from a list that was handed out at Hyles Anderson College in the 1980’s This type of loyalty to leaders one also finds among many Amish and conservative Mennonites:
“1. Always think the leader is right. Never give your opinion when the leader feels strongly.
“4. Don’t correct the leader anytime! The people are better off hearing a wrong answer than to see the leader put down by a follower. I look at it as a putdown when a leader is corrected.
“5. If the leader asks ‘is that’s right?’ answer hesitantly and almost unsure the correct answer. To say abruptly the correct answer after the leader has said one thing would be a putdown.
“6. Always make the leader look good to others. Saying; ‘Oh, you know how wise he is,’ or ‘If you need help, go to him; he can help anyone.’
“15. Never say anything negative about the leader. Not even in a joke.” (p.115)
“The first way to kill a conscience is to teach people to blindly follow rules. Blind obedience relieves people of the weighty task of making complex religious decisions. Remember, it is by blindly ‘following orders’ that young soldiers massacre villagers or gas epileptic children or do other horrible things. It is also by blind obedience that law abiding people collude against victims of church abuse, maintain shameful secrets, and even resist or oppose police investigations into complains of abuse.” (p131,132)
“When godliness is measured by a dress code and soul winning, when the inner life is ignored because the pastor doesn’t realize there is such a thing, when Christianity is merely a set of externals, then ethics are not absolute. It becomes permissible to swear at adversaries, call people queer, lie about rivals, make threats, and behave as a bully. All these bad behaviors get “compartmentalized.” The person who commits them still is able to think of himself as a godly Christian because he is a soul winner. He has given his life to Christ. The outright evil he commits goes into a different compartment, shut away from his perceptions of his actions…
“In my experience with a large segment of Christian Fundamentalists over the last six years, I have found that many of them lie, connive, deliberately twist Scripture to suit their own ends, make threats, and attempt intimidation.” (p.157)
“Many pedophiles have trouble with authentic adult relationships. They are often intimidated by adult women, and they worry about losing power to other adults. The unbelievably self-engrossed world of the pedophile is a strange one. Though he comes across as self-assured and in control, maybe even assertive and perhaps downright confrontational, the pedophile lacks self-esteem and is always protecting himself.
“What a paradise then, to step into a culture where people are not allowed to talk back to him or challenge him in any way! And best of all, women are to keep silent in the church. Christian Fundamentalism, even the ‘good’ churches, is all about authority. It’s about roles. The hierarchy is written down and has been extensively studied again and again.” (p.175,176)
The Prophet Jeremiah Experienced a Similar Problem of Immoral Prophets
After reading in Jeremiah, I realized that there is nothing new under the sun.
“Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness. For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.
“For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD. Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD. And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
“I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:9-16 )
Revival:
“Moreover the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, Thus saith the LORD the maker thereof, the LORD that formed it, to establish it; the LORD is his name; Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. For thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts, and by the sword; They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city. Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.” (Jeremiah 33:1-9)
God has showed me the same things that He showed Jeremiah. From what He has showed me, there will be a time of God’s judgment. Then there will be revival and an abundance of peace and truth. I am looking forward to that day.
Christian conservatism as a whole has some major moral failures. Amish and conservative Mennonites are not the only ones who are experiencing major moral failures in their churches. The Mennopornite Syndrome occurs in other conservative Christian denominations as well. There is a pattern of sexual abuse and moral failure that happens when a conservative Christian group, regardless of the denomination, sets up man made rules that are not spelled out that way in Scripture such as rules of modesty, regulated dress, courtship, and unbiblical control by the conservative church leaders, especially over the women. Christian conservatism has failed to produce the moral purity and protection from sexual abuse that it was supposed to.
The Next Chapter: Chapter 13 The Failure of People to Come to Maturity in Christ
Why Biblical Research Reports uses the KJV
When I started in-depth Bible research, I was using the NIV translation. I was not prepared for the deception and misguiding information that I found coming from Christian scholars. I did extensive research into Bible translations and into the Greek manuscripts themselves that the various versions are translated from.
I soon realized that the most significant subject facing the Church today is the Bible, what version is used and preached from, the Greek text it is translated from, and the way it is translated. Every Christian doctrine is based on the Bible. The way the Bible reads, the words that it has and the words that it does not have, the way the Greek words are translated or poorly translated, all affect the beliefs and teachings of the Church. At one point I thought that most translations of the Bible were basically the same except for the modernization of the old English in the KJV. This is not the case. Most of the modern translations do not have everything that the KJV does, as a result of changes in the Greek texts from which they are translated. In addition, significant changes have to be made in each new Bible version in order to copyright it. As a result of that research, I switched to the KJV. To read more about my Bible translation research check out these Research Reports:
Evidence the NIV is Not the Best Bible Translation
Evidence the NIV is not the best Bible translation (Condensed)
What is the Best Bible Translation?
I highly recommend the powerful, Free E-Sword Bible program for your computer, cell phone or other mobile device. Make sure you also download the free Treasury of Scripture Knowledge – cross references for each Bible verse to other verses on the same subject. For a cross reference database that is much larger and more complete consider purchasing The Ultimate Cross-Reference Treasury (in the dictionary category).
