How Poles Became White
1946 is a feature documentary that follows the story of tireless researchers who trace the origins of the anti-gay movement among Christians to a grave mistranslation of the Bible in 1946. It chronicl…
How Poles Became White
1946 is a feature documentary that follows the story of tireless researchers who trace the origins of the anti-gay movement among Christians to a grave mistranslation of the Bible in 1946. It chronicles the discovery of never-before-seen archives at Yale University which unveil astonishing new revelations, and casts significant doubt on any biblical basis for LGBTQIA+ prejudice. Featuring commentary from prominent scholars as well as opposing pastors, including the personal stories of the film's creators, and original music by Grammy winning artist Mary Lambert, 1946 is at once challenging, enlightening, and inspiring. Kathy Baldock, a straight ally, Christian LGBTQIA+ activist, and leading expert on LGBTQIA+ issues in the United States along with Ed Oxford, an LGBTQIA+ Christian researcher and a Masters of Divinity graduate of Talbot School of Theology, have been seeking to answer these questions and more. Kathy is currently writing, FORGING A SACRED WEAPON: HOW THE BIBLE BECAME ANTI-GAY, by tracing the creation of anti-gay theology in America and analyzing how the Bible has been weaponized against LGBTQIA+ people. In the summer of 2017, Kathy and Ed's research* led them to Yale University, where they were the first two people to investigate what caused the 1946 R.S.V.** translation team - the first team in all of history - to use the word "homosexual" in any language. The translation team under the supervision of Dr. Luther Weigle combined two Greek words in the Biblical passage I Corinthians 6:9-10, "Malakoi" and "Arsenokoitai", resulting in the modern term, "homosexual." After prolonged research, Kathy and Ed discovered a letter penned by a 21-year old seminary student known as David S. David writes in 1959: "I write this letter after many months of serious thought and hard work, partly to point out that which to me is a serious weakness in translation, but more because of my deep concern for those who are wronged and slandered by the incorrect usage of this word. Since this is a Holy Book of Scripture sacred to the Christians, I am the more deeply concerned because well meaning and sincere, but misinformed and misguided people (those among the clergy not excluded) may use this Revised Standard Version as a sacred weapon, not in fact for the purification of the church, but in fact for injustice against a defenseless minority group which includes the sincere, convicted spiritually reborn Christian who has discovered himself to be of homosexual inclination from the time of his memory. I write this letter with certain homosexual individuals in mind - Christians who would die for their faith, their church, and their Lord but who cannot alter their biological state of being. I hope that the committee responsible for considering any possible corrections or revisions of the R.S.V. text may take my case here presented into consideration." Additional correspondence between David S. and Dr. Weigle had the profound effect of changing Dr. Weigle's position; the R.S.V. translation team did in fact replace the word "homosexual" in 1st Corinthians 6:9-10 to "sexual perverts." Unfortunately, due to poor timing, the change did not take effect in the R.S.V.-Revised until 1971. By then, 25 years had past, and the damage was done. Three other independent teams were already working on other Bible translations, each using the 1946 R.S.V. as their base text. These newer translations become responsible for the spread of the word "homosexual" throughout a multitude of new passages.
How Poles Became White
Documentary
Film Details
1946 is a feature documentary that follows the story of tireless researchers who trace the origins of the anti-gay movement among Christians to a grave mistranslation of the Bible in 1946. It chronicles the discovery of never-before-seen archives at Yale University which unveil astonishing new revelations, and casts significant doubt on any biblical basis for LGBTQIA+ prejudice. Featuring commentary from prominent scholars as well as opposing pastors, including the personal stories of the film's creators, and original music by Grammy winning artist Mary Lambert, 1946 is at once challenging, enlightening, and inspiring.
Kathy Baldock, a straight ally, Christian LGBTQIA+ activist, and leading expert on LGBTQIA+ issues in the United States along with Ed Oxford, an LGBTQIA+ Christian researcher and a Masters of Divinity graduate of Talbot School of Theology, have been seeking to answer these questions and more. Kathy is currently writing, FORGING A SACRED WEAPON: HOW THE BIBLE BECAME ANTI-GAY, by tracing the creation of anti-gay theology in America and analyzing how the Bible has been weaponized against LGBTQIA+ people. In the summer of 2017, Kathy and Ed's research* led them to Yale University, where they were the first two people to investigate what caused the 1946 R.S.V.** translation team - the first team in all of history - to use the word "homosexual" in any language.
The translation team under the supervision of Dr. Luther Weigle combined two Greek words in the Biblical passage I Corinthians 6:9-10, "Malakoi" and "Arsenokoitai", resulting in the modern term, "homosexual." After prolonged research, Kathy and Ed discovered a letter penned by a 21-year old seminary student known as David S. David writes in 1959: "I write this letter after many months of serious thought and hard work, partly to point out that which to me is a serious weakness in translation, but more because of my deep concern for those who are wronged and slandered by the incorrect usage of this word.
Since this is a Holy Book of Scripture sacred to the Christians, I am the more deeply concerned because well meaning and sincere, but misinformed and misguided people (those among the clergy not excluded) may use this Revised Standard Version as a sacred weapon, not in fact for the purification of the church, but in fact for injustice against a defenseless minority group which includes the sincere, convicted spiritually reborn Christian who has discovered himself to be of homosexual inclination from the time of his memory. I write this letter with certain homosexual individuals in mind - Christians who would die for their faith, their church, and their Lord but who cannot alter their biological state of being. I hope that the committee responsible for considering any possible corrections or revisions of the R.S.V.
text may take my case here presented into consideration." Additional correspondence between David S. and Dr. Weigle had the profound effect of changing Dr.
Weigle's position; the R.S.V. translation team did in fact replace the word "homosexual" in 1st Corinthians 6:9-10 to "sexual perverts." Unfortunately, due to poor timing, the change did not take effect in the R.S.V.-Revised until 1971. By then, 25 years had past, and the damage was done.
Three other independent teams were already working on other Bible translations, each using the 1946 R.S.V. as their base text. These newer translations become responsible for the spread of the word "homosexual" throughout a multitude of new passages..