Customer Reviews

Revolve: The Complete New Testament

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(37)

 

 

Don't get me wrong... I have nothing against Christianity or religion. I'm certainly in favour of anything that can help provide young girls with some stability in their lives.

But this is not the way to go about it.

I didn't think much of "Revolve" when I first heard about it, but the more I looked into it, the more disturbed I became. Never call a boy and always let him take the lead in a relationship...? That's got to be some of the worst advice I've read. I can only imagine what will happen to the girls who follow this, only to find themselves in an abusive relationship.

And what's with the "never question your parents" bit? To a certain extent (like curfew times) this is not a bad idea. However, parents can be wrong. And it's not bad to disagree with them on larger issues like politics, homosexuality or abortions. We are individuals and, as such, we should know that there is nothing wrong with making up our own minds.

This magazine is about telling girls WHAT to think, not HOW to think. It's a manual in how to turn their brains off. I'm afraid that it will do more harm than good, and it certainly isn't going to provide help to the people who need it the most.

I've never been more embarrassed to be raised Christian. Why not change all the words in the bible? Why not change all the meaning? Bit by bit its original message is degraded in a whisper chain of translations until the person at the end is left with something resembling The Book of Mormon. There are all sorts of people who interpret the bible for any number of reasons, including Nazi's, cultists and well meaning fund raisers, but the problem is the same no matter what the purpose. To change the words inevitably in some way alters the meaning. To interpret the words gives you only one point of view- the interpreters. God wanted you to have your own point of view.

The author says that girls are intimidated by the big words and the old language of the bible. Why girls? Are they so stupid? Are they so much lesser than other parts of human culture that they need a bible written especially for them in the language of pre-adolescent morons? If girls are so pathetically ignorant, that they can't understand things people educated and uneducated alike have understood for over 1000 years, maybe they should spend a little less time shrinking their pores and a little more time paying attention at school. All this book does is say that girls are freaking idiots and so much so that they need their own version of the bible (with lots of pictures) to be able to hold their short lived brainless attention for more than 5 minutes. So anyone supporting this book supports the empty brains of girls everywhere saying "it's ok pretty thing, if you don't understand the big mean complex world, we'll just make it conform to you so you can go about putting on your make up and not have to deal with anything so bad as reality."

The best a girl who relates to this book can hope for is a husband who understands how practical yet conversationally useless she really is. That way she won't have to understand anything past simple "godly" commands. "Go make my dinner and fold my clothes and when you're done with that and putting the kids to bed go lay down on the bed naked. I'll be in eventually to please myself then you can know you've done gods work. Oh yeah... and I love you."

Girls please don't short change your self ever by thinking you are too stupid to understand something as complex as a book. There is more to you than make-up and boy angst. You were born with a brain because God wanted you to use it, not so that it could be used by those around you. If you want to start your own religion, rewrite the bible (or any religious text) in your own interpretation. If you want to be a Christian read the bible. If you want to be a Muslim read the Koran. If you want to be an idiot read this book.

Just so you know, here is an excerpt from Revolve New Testament... I got it from salon.com:

"Thinking of asking a guy out? Revolve girls don't. "Sorry," they're told. "God made guys to be the leaders. That means that they lead in relationships. They tell you they like you."

...

I am thoroughly discusted.

This bible is basically good, and very interesting, except for one major flaw. There are many articles and advice columns throughout the book that stress the importance of being a modest young woman, such as dressing conservatively and not calling boys (which I don't really agree with). But the models on the pages of the book are not dressed conservatively at all. Some are in spaghetti strap tanks, halters, and there is even a pic of a girl laying in a guys lap, which is clearly a contradiction of the advice given throughout the book. If I was affected by the pics (and I'm 21) think of how they might affect a 12-16 year old girl who's not yet fully comfortable with her own style? Other than that, the book is good.

What has the world come to when we have to package the Scripture in a Seventeen magazine?? Yeah, study Bibles are cool... when they help you understand the scriptures. Nowhere in scripture does it compare makeup foundation to Christ as the foundation of your life. That is, unless you are reading Revolve. It's sad this sort of stuff is even sold in Christian bookstores, let alone endorsed by the Christian media.

Things like this destroy young girls. It's more destructive, I would venture, than even YM or Teen People. Because no longer is the message, "you need to look like this to be popular." The new message is this: "you need to look like this in order for God to love you."

Having read the interview with the woman whose brainchild this thing is, I find myself yet again thinking that the Christian Right prefers people undereducated. Her reason for dumbing down the King James bible?

"It is Shakespearic! That's the problem. All those thous. I can honestly say my heart breaks because the church has made it so difficult for people to grasp the concepts of the Bible."
--Laurie Whaley

Strangely, I would think that if the King James Bible (a great work of literature) is too hard for most people to read because of the complexity of the language, that you'd attempt to teach people to READ BETTER.

Instead, what do you do? You create a fashion magazine with an intellectual level of someone about halfway through fifth grade (that's what Ms. Whaley says it is), with concepts like "The fire of God's love burns out the sin the same way the hot steam routs the dirt out of your pores. This kind of relationship with God will do more to improve your looks than any amount of facials." WHAAAAT?!?

I can imagine Jesus spinning on the cross like a pinata, if that's how we need to communicate the value of faith.

As an atheist, I have read the Bible, some of the Talmud, most of the Koran, and the Baghavadghita. All of them use poetic language to tell stories of morality and faith in the unseen. When the religious create things like Revolve, it makes me celebrate my unbelief, rather than consider other possibilities. And for those who tell me I'll be burning in hell, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

Hope you all know where that came from.

This version of the New Testament is entirely offensive. While presenting the New Testament to girls and young women is terribly important for religious and cultural literacy, this presentation is mixed with "YM" or "Seventeen" or "Cosmo" -style sections where girls are given advice about beauty, manners, and relationships with boys. Not only does this information NOT belong in a New Testament, it is entirely patronizing and oppressively patriarchal. For example when advising young women about how to tell a boy you Like him Revlove answers "You don't... God made guys to be the leaders. That means they lead in relationships." This version of the New Testament maintains that girls and women belong in completely submissive roles in all aspects of life. It not only condescends to use this stereotype but presents it as desriable.

These types of advice and commentary columns appear on almost every page, but seem to belong in a fashion or gossip magazeine. They not only detract from the content of the New Testament, but they seek to teach girls and women that they have no agency or rights, but should merely be concerned with submitting to the opinions and decisions of the men in their lives.

Girls and young women who want to develop an understanding of the New Testament should not read this version. Although the marketing move to increase readership is brilliant, this version is entirely patriarchal and assigns girls and women submissive and voiceless roles. These stereotypical roles remove angency and independence from our young women. Don't buy this version!

It is certainly laudable to make the Bible accessible to particular demographic groups -- teen girls, teen boys, moms, etc. And though I have reservations about the trend toward niche marketing of Bibles, rarely do "niche Bibles" turn my stomach. This one does, primarily because it buys rather uncritically into a media culture that is particularly harmful to girls and young women. Yes, the editorial additions to the biblical text sometimes warn the reader about things like eating disorders and sexual violence, but when these additions are coupled with images of beautiful and thin girls with a "natural" glow, the images overpower the words. It's hard enough for teenagers in our culture to develop a healthy body image, but associating images of impossibly perfect people with "the word of God" compounds the problem.
Beyond the problem of "image" and fashion mag format, the content here is condescending and dishonest. For instance, the editorial introduction rightly notes that questions about who wrote particular books of the Bible and why are important, and that each book's introduction will address these questions. Aside from some thematic material and an occasional passing nod to the fruits of faithfully critical biblical scholarship, the book introductions fail to do so. Similarly, in response to one of the "Blab" questions about proper attire for girls, the text says that some biblical passages are "prescriptive" and others "descriptive," the latter not to be understood as rules for today's readers. Fair enough, but there's nothing that would help the reader learn how to tell the difference. It's dishonest to say you're going to do something and not do it; it's condescending to assume that teenagers are incapable of learning how to read the Bible in a discerning way. Another painfully condescending element: the monthly calenders include "Pray for people of influence" days. The "people of influence" run the gamut from Justin Timberlake to Beyonce Knowles, and include such positive (?) influences as Mike Tyson and Eminem. Where's Sandra Day O'Connor? Toni Morrison? George Bush, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright or Jimmy Carter? Do we really think adolescent girls don't recognize -- or aren't willing to learn -- the difference between the questionable influence of celebrity and the influence of accomplishment and power?

This version of the New Testament, unfortunately, puts "a hindrance and stumbling block before" young women. As the leader of a Christian youth program, as a thinking adult deeply concerned about the ways our "image is everything" culture misshapes our teens, I can in no way recommend this version.

I am a Christian (of the Southern Baptist flavor). I am a supporter of making the Bible available to those who want to read it and understand it. Sadly, I can't endorse Revolve. Most of the other reviews have brought out Revolve's insane biases. I wish not to repeat any of that.

In saying that, I found many things that disturbed me about Revolve while thumbing through Matthew. First off, the text has a lot of stats sprinkled through the text such as "42% of teens had quiet time". What does this have to do with the Bible? Revolve sports calendars, like other mainstream magazines for teenage girls. This leads to two observations. Some of the activities listed are pretty corny. One activity that Revolve suggests teenage girls do is to bake bread with mom and celebrate as a family. The calendars also have for certain days the birthdays of celebrities that 99.9% of teen girls can relate to. What happened to Lincoln, Washington, and MLK?

The worst thing about Revolve is the lack of respect and tolerance for other people's beliefs. There is a question on what to do if you meet a witch. Revolve decrees that you are haul your friend to church and let God do the rest. Groovy.
Another of Revolve's sidebars instruct teen girls that's it's OK to pray with someone of the opposite sex but to exercise caution in doing it. In my mind, that's pretty messed up.

There are two good things about Revolve. One are profile of charities. This could expose teen girls to something beyond themselves. The translation used is the New Century Version, a very good version.

In short, none of these two good things can save Revolve. I think the publisher has tried a bit too hard to be hip. I see teen girls being interested for a short while, then being totally apathetic thereafter. Here's the bottom line: There are better Bibles for *all* youth. Revolve is not one of them - sadly.

"Make sure that Jesus would be pleased with what you wear. You don't have to look frumpy, just make sure you look like a child of God." -Resolve

What?! Please, girls...can you really believe this crap? Jesus cares about what you wear? Come on. Don't buy it. Don't listen. Who do these people think they are? Twisting the Bible around to fit their narrow conservative view of the (your) world ?!

This whole magazine if full of contradictions and mixed messages.

Please be strong enough to see it and withstand it. You will not go to hell for thinking for yourself.

"Be kind to your neighbor"...unless of course he is of a different race or sexual orientation than we think is OK. Does that sound right? Jesus did not judge people, he tried to help them, all of them; male, female, black, white, orange and yellow.

The people that put this magazine out are the same ones that don't want you to go to college because you might actually read real books there and will learn a lot about how you can do and be and think WHATEVER YOU WANT. And then all their brainwashing about how you are "supposed to be-because that is what (they say) Jesus would want" would go out the window. Good riddance.

If you had your own thoughts you might not be available to cook and clean and stay at home and keep your mouth shut (all what Jesus expects of women?) Doesn't sound right to me. How about you? And you might learn that Jesus doesn't really wan't you be submissive and a second class citizen.

Jesus wants you to go out into the world, find yourself, your true self-not the one this magazine tells you you should be. You could help other people and make the world a better place or you could be a stock broker and make a lot of money. Whatever. The point is you can do whatever it is and it you don't need to conform to some Resolve standart in order to make whatever you want to happen, happen.

This magazine is crap that tries to scare people into being a certain way. That is wrong. Jesus would not like that..at all.

In truth, you are an individual that has her own ideas that aren't always going to match up with what some old white guy that wrote this magazine or what your pastor says.

You don't have to wear what everyone else is wearing and don't have to do what you are told if it doesn't feel right.

This is the USA - be free, it is your right.