Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 06:49:30 -0400 (EDT) From: Darrell128@aol.com Subject: NR 97085: Evangelical Press Association Apologizes for Initial Ethics Committee NR #1997-085: Evangelical Press Association Apologizes for Initial Ethics Committee Report on World Magazine In an unexpected about-face, the Evangelical Press Association has backed off from its initial report criticizing World Magazine for unethical reporting on the proposed inclusive language revision of the New International Version of the Bible. After the EPA's ad hoc ethics committee issued its report on charges against World filed by Zondervan Publishing House and the International Bible Society, World's editor and publisher mounted a direct attack on the report, issuing a flurry of counter-charges that the committee's membership was biased against World and that the freedom of the evangelical press had been placed in grave jeopardy by a multimillion dollar corporation offended by independent investigative journalism. Zondervan and International Bible Society spokesmen were unavailable for comment. Belz said the paper had no further comment beyond a prepared statement expressing gratitude and appreciation for the Evangelical Press Association decision. "Now we ask the EPA board, in its continuing efforts to seek resolution of the issues, also to set aside the substance of the initial report," said World. "Without knowing yet the details of the 'course of action' laid out by EPA's board, World pledges cooperation in the pursuit of a biblical resolution of these issues, consistent with our enduring commitment to use our pages to speak the truth in all matters." NR 1997-085: For Immediate Release Evangelical Press Association Apologizes for Initial Ethics Committee Report on World Magazine by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service (August 6, 1997) URNS -- In an unexpected about-face, the Evangelical Press Association has backed off from its initial report criticizing World Magazine for unethical reporting on the proposed inclusive language revision of the New International Version of the Bible. After the EPA's ad hoc ethics committee issued its report on charges against World filed by Zondervan Publishing House and the International Bible Society, World's editor and publisher mounted a direct attack on the report, issuing a flurry of counter-charges that the committee's membership was biased against World and that the freedom of the evangelical press had been placed in grave jeopardy by a multimillion dollar corporation offended by independent investigative journalism. "This is an outrageous attempt by Zondervan to use bogus ethics charges to strangle an independent publication," said World editor Dr. Marvin Olasky at the time. World's publisher, the immediate past president of the Evangelical Press Association, had been even more pointed. "I think it's almost certainly one of the first times a press association has tried to stifle free expression," said Joel Belz. "In the end you have to come back to truthfulness, and with respect to truthfulness we think the report speaks for itself." Zondervan and International Bible Society spokesmen were unavailable for comment. Belz said the paper had no further comment beyond a prepared statement expressing gratitude and appreciation for the Evangelical Press Association decision. "Now we ask the EPA board, in its continuing efforts to seek resolution of the issues, also to set aside the substance of the initial report," said World. "Without knowing yet the details of the 'course of action' laid out by EPA's board, World pledges cooperation in the pursuit of a biblical resolution of these issues, consistent with our enduring commitment to use our pages to speak the truth in all matters." The controversy began when World ran a series of articles revealing the existence of a revised New International Version of the Bible produced by the NIV Committee on Bible Translation and published in England by the European NIV licensee, Hodder & Stoughten. While not changing masculine gender references to God, the inclusive language NIV avoided generic masculine references to humans, often by changing references to singular "man" and "he" to plural forms such as "people" and "they." Subsequent World articles focused on International Bible Society president Lars Dunberg's pledge to produce an inclusive language NIV in North America and Zondervan's publication of a simplified-language "New International Reader's Version" using inclusive language but not announcing that fact. After pressure from the Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and others, Zondervan and the International Bible Society reversed their plans, declared that an inclusive NIV would not be published in North America, and pledged to revise the simplified-language NIV. IBS also said it would enter into negotiations with Hodder & Stoughten to withdraw their already-published inclusive language NIV. After dropping their inclusive language revision plans, Zondervan and IBS filed ethics charges against World Magazine that were largely sustained by the EPA's ad hoc ethics committee in a July 1 report released to the public the following day. In a July 28 statement, the EPA board announced they had held a special July 22 meeting to consider the matter and decided they had "made two major errors in handling this process." "We violated our own bylaws in appointing the ad hoc ethics committee," announced the EPA board. "Our bylaws require that functioning committees be composed of members of the EPA. While we looked for three people with a good grasp of journalism ethics and a reputation for integrity, we failed to remember the membership requirement. Since the three ad hoc committee members are not currently members of the EPA, the committee lacked the mandated qualifications to legitimately perform its task." EPA also said it erred in releasing the report before it could be formally reviewed by the board. "We deeply regret that our improper handling of this situation has complicated the dispute, placed the parties and the members of the ad hoc committee in awkward positions, and delayed a constructive resolution of the parties' differences," wrote the EPA board. "We will make every effort to remedy our errors and properly address these issues as quickly as possible. We have laid out a course of action, and in order to avoid further inflaming the dispute, we intend to work directly with the parties involved toward a mutually satisfactory resolution." EPA also pledged to "begin an internal review to identify and correct the deficiencies in our process for handling ethics complaints." David Neff, the executive editor of Christianity Today and the new EPA board president, said the EPA decision to appoint a panel of non-EPA members to review the ethics complaint had been an honest mistake. "We thought there would be a greater degree of impartiality by people who were committed to the EPA by being journalists who are evangelicals but not current members who were perhaps entangled in the internal web of things, and one of those persons had served on an ethics committee under [Belz's] leadership," said Neff. "The bylaws are clear in terms of EPA members being on functioning committees, but there is no statement in the form of a reverse negative that people who are not EPA members cannot be on our committees." Neff said the EPA board would likely but not necessarily appoint a new ethics committee rather than seeking to undertake the task itself. "A new list of people is being carried to the parties involved; by carrying that longer list to the parties involved we are hoping to allow them to strike certain names they would be uncomfortable with and to highlight names," said Neff. Neff also said meetings were underway with Zondervan, World, and the International Bible Society in an effort to reduce tensions and build confidence in the process. According to Neff, World's allegations of bias by ethics committee members were a factor but not the primary factor in deciding not to adopt the committee report. "The dominant factor had to do with the nature of our process being essentially adversarial at that point and there not being any way an adversarial process could get us back to where we wanted to be," said Neff. While recognizing that a "win-lose" situation might be inevitable, Neff said the EPA would try to come up with a mutually acceptable solution. "We are trying to follow the process in such a way so that learning and personal change can happen so confidence can be had in the process rather than by a committee imposed from without," said Neff, who also indicated the EPA's 1998 annual meeting would include a "listening session" on concerns about the ethics process. "If people are going to learn lessons about ethical journalism, often the best way to do that is not through hand slapping," said Neff. "When that sort of thing happens, people have a tendency to dig in their position and you get this kind of unproductive dialogue. One thing we want to head for in our process is something that encourages maturity and professional growth, and also something that minimizes the relational breaks that occur in a situation like this. "I personally value our relationship with Joel [Belz] very much, and also our relationship with Zondervan," said Neff. "For some people to turn this into an EPA versus World situation rather than a Zondervan versus World situation is also painful. Let's learn about accountability when it comes to ethics and do it in a way that encourages." Cross-References to Related Articles: #1997-082: Zondervan, International Bible Society Win First Round in Ethics Charges Against World Magazine Over Inclusive Language Bible Contact List: Joel Belz, Publisher, World Magazine [For interview arrangements contact Matthew Worthington] PO Box 2330, Asheville, NC 28802 O: (800) 951-4974 * O: (704) 253-8063 * F: (704) 253-1556 David Neff, Board President, Evangelical Press Association 465 Gunderson Dr., Carol Stream, IL 60188 O: (630) 260-6200 * F: (630) 260-0114 Dr. Marvin Olasky, Editor, World Magazine [For interview arrangements contact Matthew Worthington] PO Box 2330, Asheville, NC 28802 O: (800) 951-4974 * O: (704) 253-8063 * F: (704) 253-1556 Jonathan Petersen, Director of Corporate Affairs, Zondervan Publishing House 5300 Patterson SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49512 O: (616) 698-3417 * F: (616) 698-3223 Dr. Eugene Rubingh, Vice-President of Translations, International Bible Society 2736 Westwood Blvd, Colorado Springs, CO 80918 O: (719) 488-9200 * H: (719) 598-7426 * FAX: (719) 488-0915 * E-Mail: IBSTrans@aol.com Prof. John Stek, Chairman, Committee on Bible Translation 2045 Ridgewood SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 H/O: (616) 949-4134 Ron Wilson, Executive Director, Evangelical Press Association 485 Panorama Road, Earlysville, VA 22936 O: (804) 973-5941 * F: (804) 973-2710 * E-Mail: 74463.272@compuserve.com ---------------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/reformed/archive97: nr97-085.txt .