What I did on my summer vacation

National | Wheaton professor attacks Dobson's role in preserving NIV; Dobson defends guidelines | Edward E. Plowman

New and returning Wheaton College students this fall were greeted by an article on the opinion pages of the Wheaton Record, the college's newspaper. Authored by New Testament professor Gary Burge, its first sentence was: "James Dobson and a circle of men tried to hijack the New International Version this summer while you were gone."

Mr. Dobson, founder and head of Focus on the Family, hosted a meeting on May 27 where theologians and publishing executives agreed on translation guidelines designed to protect the Bible against gender-neutral biases. But Mr. Burge suggested that the guidelines represented "a breathtaking display of hubris." He predicted "the generic use of man will disappear in our lifetime or soon thereafter," and warned that if evangelicals cling to the old language, they risk "cultural marginalization."