Culture

Accurately translating the Bible from its original sources to modern-day languages has been the cause of much debate, especially in America, where political speech influences almost every aspect of society. But is it ever necessary to make Scripture "adapt" to the times to get the "good news" across?

Some experts argue that accuracy and truthfulness should be the strict points of concern when translating and interpreting the Bible; others, who see cultural influences as inevitable, have taken up projects to ensure the word of God is presented in the language most relevant to whichever culture it speaks to.

The Conservative Bible Project on Conservapedia.com, a website upholding conservative ideals, tailored after the Wikipedia model of users contributing their own information in building articles, is an effort to remove what it calls "liberal-bias" from modern Bible translations in America and emphasize conservative values – two of which it identifies as accepting the "logic" of a real, eternal hell and expressing free market parables. more >>

Adding buttons to Facebook's "Like" button has long been debated, but reports are now saying that new buttons will be added to the site.

A television fansite which is integrating with the Facebook Timeline, Wetpaint Entertainment, rolled out new buttons Thursday.

Wetpaint allows users to click words such as "LOVE!" and "LOL!" in addition to "Like." The added descriptors help Facebook users share their opinions with friends on the social media site. Other buttons include: "TMI," "OMG," and "BOO," among many others. more >>

The largest emerald in the world, nearly the size of a watermelon, will be put up for auction and sold to the highest bidder later this month.

The oval gemstone which weighs just over 25 pounds and is named "Teodora" which means "God's Gift," is said to be 57,500 carats and was appraised by a respected gem dealer at around $1.15 million, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

A rare gem hunter in Calgary, Regan Reaney, described this stone as “once-in-a-lifetime.” "I'm still amazed every time I look at, pick it up, touch it. It is amazing," Reaney told the Calgary Herald. more >>

George Clooney, Jamie Lee Curtis, Martin Sheen and other Hollywood celebs are to perform in a Los Angeles premiere in March of the play "8," which recreates the controversial challenge to Proposition 8 in California posed by a group of activists advocating for same-sex marriage in 2010.

Proposition 8 – or Prop. 8 – was passed in Californian in 2008, ultimately banning same-sex marriage by stating that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." But in 2010, the law was challenged following protests from gay activists supporters in an attempt to overturn the California Supreme Court's decision. The judge in the case, a homosexual himself, did overturn Prop 8, but the decision was not yet instigated and is still under review.

Meanwhile, the battle over the defition of marriage has become the subject of a play written by Academy Award winner Dustin Lance Black – who is a member of American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), an organization created specifically to lobby for overturning Prop 8. Black also penned "Milk," a feature film about gay activist Harvey Milk. The play, "8," is being directed by actor and director Joe Mantello, according to the production's Facebook page. more >>

Jefferson Bethke’s “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” YouTube sensation has garnered over 15 million views and thousands of comments since its Jan. 10 release. In a tell-all interview with The Christian Post, Bethke shares his views on religion, the controversy surrounding his video, and changes he wish he could make to his message, now gone viral.

The 22-year-old shared that this video was “not as big as it looked” – that it was the collaborative product of his poetry and a friend’s video production skills. However, the emotion behind “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” was Scripture-based, he told CP.

“My heart behind the video and the lyrics really has to do with just reading the Scripture and seeing a staunch juxtaposition that Jesus would always do in regards to highlighting people who are only about the external not the internal,” Bethke said. more >>

Football fans and observers of the NFL playoffs are still searching the Internet for the meaning of the Bible verse John 3:16, which was initially prompted by Tim Tebow’s 316 yards passing in the Denver Broncos playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers more than a week ago.

For some, that search is leading to salvation.

According to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Internet Evangelism team, which launched a special “John 3:16” Web page the day after the winning stats were put up by Tebow, there have been 11,000 views of the page and 207 people indicating, by way of filling out a short contact form, that they had made decisions to follow Jesus. more >>