Stylish magazine-format Bibles target adolescent girls

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Apr 16, 2005 | by David Yount

Set aside the traditional leather binding and gold-embossed spine, with the words of Jesus conveniently printed in red on onion skin. That was your father's Bible.

The latest incarnations of Scripture resemble fashion magazines more than reference volumes, featuring large, slick-coated paper stock and color photos, plus "beauty secrets," sidebars, feature stories, reviews of Christian rock and even personal advice about life and love.

Thomas Nelson, the largest publisher of Bibles in the English language, has targeted its new magazine-format Bibles to specific readers -- to adolescent girls, for starters, with later versions fashioned for teenage boys, young women and men. Within three months of publication, Revolve, the complete New Testament for teenage girls, became the nation's best selling Bible.

An enhanced version, Revolve 2, could easily be mistaken for an issue of Vogue. With a trio of lovely, smiling girls on its cover, it runs more than 400 pages, weighs just more than a pound and a half and retails for $16.99. It incorporates the entire New Testament in the conversational New Century version.

The purpose of the publication is to make the word of God relevant to young people -- hopefully without pandering to them -- to keep the New Testament new and to make the venerable "Good News" of the Gospel up-to-date good news for young Americans.

The version for girls begins with this quote from Proverbs (31:30): "Charm can fool you, and beauty can trick you, but a woman who respects the Lord should be praised." Its editors promise young readers: "If life is a journey, then the Bible is your survival guide."

In one of its features, "Bible Basics," Revolve 2 offers a workable definition of Christian evangelism: "Sharing with other people about the friendship you have with Christ."

Advice columns focus on dealing with self-image, sex and parents. To the question of what qualities a girl should seek in a boy, editors answer: "Your guy needs to love God more than he loves you. That's the only way he can understand how to love you the right way." The blunt response to "How far can you go sexually before you are no longer pure?" is "How much dog poop stirred into your cookie batter does it take to ruin the whole batter?"

To the girl who feels guilty for having sex with her boyfriend for the first time, editors counsel: "Ask Jesus to forgive you, and make sure you get tested for sexually transmitted diseases" -- then tell the boyfriend "no" next time.

For girls who are inclined to throw up to control their weight, editors counsel, "Bulimia can seriously affect your health. Eventually, it can even kill you."

Surely, girls already know this from their mothers -- if not from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul.

David Yount's latest book is Celebrating the Rest of Your Life: A Baby Boomer's Guide to Spirituality (Augsburg). He answers readers at P.O. Box 2758, Woodbridge, VA 22193 and dyount@erols.com.