By 1999 Zondervan, IBS, and the CBT were back at it. After pledging just two years earlier “to discontinue all plans to develop a new, gender-neutral version of the NIV,” they hinted at a new “rendition” that would be gender-neutral. 

In early 1997 a call came to the Olasky home with a tip: The NIV was quietly going gender-neutral. Would WORLD be interested in the story?

At that time WORLD’s staff was small, so editor Marvin asked me to make a few calls. From that small beginning came a story that rocked the evangelical world and the larger world of Bible publishing—and threatened WORLD’s existence as well.

The initial story ran on the cover of the March 29, 1997, issue with the attention-grabbing headline “Stealth Bible” over an image of a Bible in the shape of a stealth bomber, the military’s state-of-the-art airplane. The inside headline shouted “Femme fatale.” Under it in large letters, “The feminist seduction of the evangelical church: The New International Version of the Bible—the best-selling English version in the world—is quietly going ‘gender-neutral.’”

In reporting the story, I interviewed Larry Walker and Kenneth Barker of the Committee on Bible Translation (CBT), the obscure group with exclusive control over the text of the NIV. I also interviewed pastors and elders at particular churches and seminary professors about the trend.

We obtained a copy of the already-published British version (NIV Inclusive Language Edition) and found many of the translating choices troubling. Some sounded awkward: “fishers of men” became “fishers of men and women.” Others changed meaning. Doing away with “blessed is the man who does not walk…” and replacing it with “blessed are those…” turns the focus from the brave individual to a crowd. Replacing “God created man” with “God created human beings…” cloaks the unity of mankind. And replacing “protects all his bones…” with “protects all their bones” obscures a reference to Christ.

Our articles drew rapid responses, many of them negative. Two groups mentioned in the article, the International Bible Society (IBS) and Zondervan, issued denials on their websites. Even some readers who oppose unisex trends in society thought maybe WORLD had got it wrong. Why else would IBS and Zondervan, respected organizations that had done wonderful things in the past, complain so vociferously?

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