The storyteller introduced himself with his spirit name: Gitchi Animiki Meno Mashkiki Manido \u2013 \u201cVoice of Great Thunder with a Good Medicine Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m also known as Terry Wildman,\u201d he said. \u201cA little easier to say, a little easier to live up to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wildman was in the crowded Plyler Hall auditorium to deliver the 2023 Dr. Charles Dorsey Horton and Maxine Horton Lecture in Biblical Studies<\/a>, presented by the Furman University Religion Department. A descendent of Ojibwe and Yaqui ancestors, Wildman discussed his work as lead translator, general editor and project manager for the First Nations Version<\/a> (FNV), a translation of the New Testament by and for the Indigenous people of North America.<\/p>\n Bible translations into scores of Native American languages<\/a> have been published for centuries, but the FNV takes a different approach, Wildman explained, rewording scripture in simple yet profound English crafted to resonate with the majority of modern Indigenous readers who no longer speak their mother tongues.<\/p>\n Wildman, cofounder of the nonprofit Rain Ministries, recognized the need for a new telling of scripture about two decades ago during a jail ministry on the Hopi reservation in northern Arizona.<\/p>\n \u201cI noticed that the English Bible we were reading wasn\u2019t connecting well,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I couldn\u2019t find one Bible in English that had been done with Native people in mind. We were doing things in a way that didn\u2019t relate to them culturally.\u201d<\/p>\n Learning about European colonists\u2019 attempts to assimilate and \u201cChristianize\u201d Native Americans gave Wildman some historical perspective. The traumatic legacy of the Federal Indian Boarding Schools<\/a> of the early 1900s \u2013 many run by Christian missionary organizations \u2013 that shamed and punished Indigenous children for practicing their own cultures and languages has scarred generations since, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not ashamed of the Gospel,\u201d said Wildman. \u201cI\u2019m ashamed of the way it was brought here \u2013 taking a message of love and acceptance and goodwill and faith and weaponizing the Bible against our people.\u201d<\/p>\n Seeking a way to undo the damage, the minister began experimenting with reframing scripture in the familiar oral storytelling traditions of Native Americans, using more recognizable cultural idioms and language. In the stories that evolved into the FNV, \u201cGod\u201d became \u201cCreator\u201d or \u201cGreat Spirit.\u201d \u201cSon of Man\u201d became \u201cTrue Human Being.\u201d \u201cThe Kingdom of God\u201d became \u201cThe Creator\u2019s Good Road.\u201d \u201cSin\u201d became \u201cbad hearts\u201d or \u201cbroken ways.\u201d<\/p>\n And the messages began connecting, Wildman said \u2013 at the Hopi reservation jail and beyond, at tribal centers, powwows and churches across the country where he and his wife, Darlene Wildman, traveled with their music ministry, RainSong<\/a>.<\/p>\n The translations have helped give modern readers of all backgrounds, Indigenous or otherwise, a fresh appreciation for scriptural messages, said Wildman. And the centuries-old tradition of recasting a story to suit an audience and its culture was employed by the writers of the Gospels themselves, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe our cultures can bless each other,\u201d Wildman said. \u201cA good storyteller will make sure the essence of the story is not changed. If you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you will hear four different stories that all basically are trying to tell the same story to different audiences in unique ways..\u201d<\/p>\n Wildman began consulting a translation council<\/a> selected from a cross-section of Native North Americans, representing diverse tribes and geographic locations. After five years of work, InterVarsity Press published the FNV in 2021 \u2013 \u201cin terms of Bible translations, brand-spanking new,\u201d noted moderator Bryan Bibb<\/a>, a professor of religion.<\/p>\n Translations of the Old Testament books of Psalms and Proverbs are in the works, Wildman said.<\/p>\n Helen Lee Turner<\/a>, a professor of religion, prefaced the Cultural Life Program (CLP) event with the land acknowledgement<\/a> adopted by the university in 2019, stating that the campus \u201coccupies traditional land of the Cherokee people, a land where the Catawba and other Indigenous people might have found food.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t read this at every CLP,\u201d Turner said, \u201cbut it seemed appropriate here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Furman students and community members learned about Terry Wildman\u2019s attempt to give Native Americans a fresh appreciation of scripture and undo the damage of colonial \u201cChristianization.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":27589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,23,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversity-equity-and-inclusion","category-religion","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Weaponizing\u2019 the Bible<\/h3>\n
\u2018Our cultures can bless each other\u2019<\/h3>\n