The Good Book at the Olympic Games

At the Olympics, cultures cross, and the Word goes forth:

China will provide 10,000 free Chinese-English bilingual Bibles to be distributed in the Olympic Village where the Olympic athletes and media are housed, as reported by the China Daily newspaper. The bilingual Bible text will include the CUV (Chinese Union Version) and the ESV (English Standard Version), appearing in two side-by-side columns per page. The CUV Bible is the most widely distributed Chinese Bible in the world, and the ESV Bible has recently become the fastest growing English language Bible in the world.

In addition to the 10,000 bilingual CUV-ESV Bibles, 30,000 New Testaments and 100,000 bilingual editions of the four Gospels will also be made available at the Olympic Games.

Because cultural and academic leaders in China are seeking to understand the influence of the Bible on the worldview and culture of the West, there is a growing interest in Chinese-English bilingual Bibles in mainland China. ?We are especially grateful,? Crossway President Dr. Lane Dennis notes, ?that the ESV was selected by Chinese Christian leaders for publication with Chinese CUV Bible, through our partnership with the British and Foreign Bible Society. Since both the CUV and the ESV are ?essentially literal? Bible translations, they are ideally suited for a side-by-side comparison of the two languages. What a wonderful thing it would be if thousands of people would learn English?and Chinese!?by reading the Bible in side-by-side bilingual editions.?

–hat tip to C.E. Moore’s coverage at The Christian Manifesto

But there is still plenty for which we can work and pray:

In the Olympic Village, you can find religious freedom. Maybe some foreigners can worship. … But I tell you, the real crisis in China now is that there are no reformers left. The power struggle among the leadership is for power, not reform. To have real political reform, they would lose their power.

— Fan Yafeng, a law professor at the Institute of Law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a leader of an unregistered house church. (From The Washington Post, in a story titled “Beijing Curbs Religious Rights”)

–hat tip to Sojourners E-mail Updates

And visit bookseller extraordinaire Byron Borger of Hearts & Minds Books for A Christian View of Sport.