Documentary '1946' Traces Anti-Gay Stigma to Disputed Bible Translation, Director Tells Houston Public Media

Director Sharon "Rocky" Roggio says a decision made by a group of scholars nearly 80 years ago altered the course of modern history for LGBTQ people. Roggio, whose documentary "1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture" examines the episode, discussed the film in an interview with host Eddie Robinson on Houston Public Media's "I SEE U" podcast, in an episode first aired earlier and re-released on Dec. 1, 2023.

The film centers on a Bible verse, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. Roggio explained that the 1946 Revised Standard Version set out to modernize the 1611 King James Version, which renders the passage as "abusers of themselves with mankind." The committee behind the 1946 edition was the first to place the word "homosexual" in that verse, she said.

According to Roggio, the passage is a list of vices in which Paul names the kinds of people who will not enter heaven. It contains two Greek words, "malakoi" and "arsenokoitai," which the translation committee combined into the single modern term. She said "malakoi" can mean many things, including "soft" or cowardly, and was often a slur for effeminate men. It could also describe a man who was penetrated, and in many cases, she said, the encounters were non-consensual, involving boys or payment. She described "arsenokoitai" as a figure of privilege and power who could use anyone he chose.

Roggio said the committee, whose members were born in the late 1800s and early 1900s, did not have a real understanding of what a homosexual is, and that the term itself was new. She said the translators saw men having sex with men and simply inserted the word. When challenged, she said, the committee recognized the error and changed it. By then, she said, the word had spread in print during the 1970s through other translations built on the Revised Standard Version. Some of those translations later placed it in additional verses, which she said are now known as the "clobber verses."

The research behind the film came from two lay researchers, Kathy Baldock and Ed Oxford, who wanted to know who decided to put the word in the Bible and why. Roggio said their search led them to archives and letters in the basement of Yale University that supported their theory. She said she earned their trust to tell the story. As an LGBTQ Christian affected by religious trauma, she said she knows the impact of the mistranslation firsthand. She quit her job and invested her own money over four years to complete the project.

Roggio said she does not see malice in the early spread of the word, but she sees it in the 1980s, when Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority amplified the term and used it as a political tool. Asked whether a correct translation would have prevented violence against LGBTQ people, she said she hoped it would have been less severe but that nobody can know. She noted that the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality in the 1970s, which she said was when churches began to treat it as a moral issue.

Robinson, who is gay and attends church, cited a line from Baldock in the film: "It was not that gay people wanted nothing to do with church. It was that the church wanted nothing to do with gay people." Roggio said the sentiment may resonate even more now, as churches divide between affirming and non-affirming positions. She said she considers middle-ground congregations unhelpful, though she acknowledged they can matter to parents and others who need time.

Roggio said the film has drawn backlash from religious writers who, according to her, have not seen it. It has nonetheless received praise and several awards on the festival circuit. The film ends, she said, on a note of hope.