Dis-sociates
Is it shrewd?
Is it sneaky?
Is it artful?
Is it wily?
I have written a lot so far talking about my objections to the MAST process of Bible translation recently adopted by Wycliffe Associates. But I also have other concerns beyond the questionable and highly error-prone translation process they use, and it seems I am not alone in worrying.
I have spoken with many people familiar with Bible translation, and many of them have shared alarming things with me. I am not alone in the unrest that I feel about Wycliffe Associates. Here is a list of 8 strikes against them as pertains to the inner workings of the organization.
1. Keeping the Name: The worst example of their poor behavior is their keeping the name Wycliffe Associates. They had 48 fruitful years of assisting Wycliffe Bible Translators by organizing volunteers, opening hospitality homes, raising finances, arranging transportation, and providing support in any way they could, as needed.
A new idea came along and they didn’t just snatch it up, they embraced it at the expense of everything else they had been doing. They announced that MAST was the process to speed up translation and that it worked better than they anticipated. They decided to become a Bible Translation organization.
They completely changed their purpose and mission. Nothing remains of who they were before except their passion for Bible translation, but, and this is a big BUT, they didn’t start a new organization and they didn’t change their name. When they completely changed, my Mom was speaking at their banquets and it was never announced that they were dropping the old things, just that this new MAST process was now being used. MAST was described as supporting Bible Translation, so it sounded like just another new thing they were promoting like the BTAKS from the previous tour.
Years ago, I was the area coordinator for the WA banquets, and this change was never explained to me. I also signed up to be a host-home for traveling missionaries. This was right at the time they changed their focus and instead of being told this; I was just never contacted.
For instance, people who volunteered to work on construction projects years ago are quite bothered that it is a ‘lack of honesty to the long-time supporters who weren’t told of the split’. One man didn’t find out about the split from Wycliffe Bible Translators until years later. One only found out when I told her, and she is an area coordinator for Wycliffe Associates fund-raising banquets.
Barbara Knutson, says: “Most of Joe Q. Public don’t know there is a difference between Wycliffe Associates and Wycliffe Bible Translators, so WA is prospering off of the good name of our (WBT) reputation, and also muddying it.”
Martha Troyer adds: “We found out that locally our people did not know there were two separate organizations. Our hearts sank when we saw announced the ‘Wycliffe Bible Translator Banquet’. I wish Wycliffe Associates would change their name.” WBT has never done banquets but even at a church that has WBT missionaries, churchgoers still confuse the two organizations. This is not an accident or oversight on WA’s part.
"A couple years ago there was a WA banquet in our area. A couple people gave me envelopes with checks because they could not attend. One was made out to Wycliffe and the other to Wycliffe Bible Translators. People automatically think A Bible Translation Banquet is Wycliffe of course...Years ago the banquets were formed to support Wycliffe projects because that is why WA was formed. The WA history does not mention the real reason WA was formed." says SE.
Not changing your name when you change everything about what you do leads people to still associate Wycliffe Associates with Wycliffe Bible Translators. I would guess that at least 50% of their supporters still think that they are working with Wycliffe Bible Translators, or that they are even the same organization. Someone else reports to me that it is probably higher, and at 90%. I have recently been asked by the head of a mission team at a church that takes missions very seriously, “I searched the WBT website and can’t find anything about Wycliffe Associates, can you help me?”
It’s dishonest and sneaky of WA to keep their name.
Wycliffe Bible Translators owns the copyright for the word ‘Wycliffe’. In our corporate world this would never stand up in court.
Change your mission and your purpose? Fine, but then change your name.
My Mom was there in 1967 when Bill Butler started the organization, Bruce Smith, WA President, was not. She was one of the first WA secretaries. Bill Butler and the leadership team was not thinking of the heroic Bible translator, John Wycliffe. I know that they chose the name, Wycliffe Associates, because they wanted to be associated with Wycliffe Bible Translators, as a support and help to WBT.
Hugh Steven wrote a book called What a Difference a Team Makes, about the unique, wonderful partnership between Wycliffe Bible Translators and their auxiliary organization, Wycliffe Associates. He writes, “By now the name Wycliffe Associates was agreed upon as the organization’s name. The name “Lollards,”[iii] had been considered in honor of the itinerant preachers established by John Wycliffe to carry out his vision.” Lollards were laypeople passionate about spreading the anti-transubstantiation and anti-papal supremacy beliefs that were strongly held at the time.[iv] I’m glad they decided on Wycliffe Associates, not Lollards, but what a powerful name that would have been, a name to remind us that WA was never meant to be a translation organization. The Lollards weren’t translators themselves.
3. Finances: Let’s compare the Wycliffe Bible Translators financial statement and the Wycliffe Associates financial statement on their websites from 2018. Wycliffe Bible Translators has links to their annual report, 34 pages financial report and Form 990-T. Wycliffe Associates financial statement is 2 pages in their annual report with no real details. Does that show a lack of financial accountability?
4. Websites: Now let’s compare the websites of the two organizations.
The Wycliffe Associates websites has 5 donation buttons prevalent on their home page. It calls to you to: Donate, Give Now, Help Now, Sponsor a Translation, Donate Now (in red). There are 22 main links to click on but almost a quarter of them are asking what they can get out of you. It was not easy to find any information about their board members anywhere on the internet. I ended up finding it on the last page of their annual reports
Wycliffe Bible Translators’ website also has a red button, but it asks you to download a prayer journal that will take you on a beautiful, thoughtful trip around the world. (You should see it. It’s gorgeous, and it will inspire you to pray). There are other links: prayers, prayer tips, shopping, learning about languages, partnerships, serve and donate. There 32 buttons, but only two are donation links. Information about their 15 board members is easy to find.
5. Confusion: One spot on the WA website it says, ‘Sponsor a MAST Bible Translation for just $25’, but in another place it says, “Just $19,500 can launch a new Bible translation workshop.” Not exactly a lie, but the first sentence implies that it is just $25.
6. Lying about their history: The well-documented history-in-brief of Wycliffe Associates:
a. Bill Butler and others knew they couldn’t do Bible translation themselves but realized they could help the translators by freeing up their time, so that those who could would be able to focus on translation–so they started an organization in 1967 to do just that.
b. WA spearheaded building projects, raised funds, organized efforts and provided housing, and they did these things very well.
c. In 2014, they developed the MAST process.
d. In 2015, after 48 years of focused work, they broke their relationship with WBT to focus solely on untested accelerated translation strategies and do none of the previous things they did.
Now let’s look at what WA says about their own history, first on their website from 2007 which I found archived, and then what they say on their website as of 2019.
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‘Our History’ from 2007[v] |
‘Our History’ from 2019 |
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“Wycliffe Associates was founded in 1967 to support and encourage Bible translators in practical, tangible ways. The founders crafted a ministry, which would provide opportunities for volunteers to use their gifts and abilities in hands-on projects, meeting the real needs of translators on the mission field.”
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In 1967, three people deeply concerned about the future of Bible translation—Bill Butler, Dale Kietzman, and Rudy Renfer—realized that translators were spending an increasing amount of their time in non-translation tasks. They saw that Christian business professionals with a heart for service and a wide variety of skills could accelerate Bible translation by freeing up thousands of hours of translation time each year. These three men also knew that hundreds of millions were still waiting for God’s Word in their heart language. They had to give these people access to the truth of the gospel—so they could know the God who loves them and desires a relationship with them. We are following God’s call to accelerate Bible translation in the most remote, most antagonistic parts of the world. Since the year 2000, we have expanded our services to Bible translators with technology, logistical and operational support, accelerated translation strategies, and greater financial resources. Wycliffe Associates empowers national Bible translation teams under the authority of the local church in each language. We are following God’s call to accelerate Bible translation in the most remote, most antagonistic parts of the world. In 2014, Wycliffe Associates developed and tested a new Bible translation strategy, MAST equips national translators to take Bible translation into their own hands and to quickly and accurately bring God’s Word to their own people. |
Ninety percent of their history is not translation, but instead of focusing on that on their website, or the fact that their organization changed in mission and the out-working of that mission, they focus on their work from the last four years of becoming a brand-new, baby translation organization. Instead I see words like ‘expanded’, ‘developed and tested’, as if there was no change, but an addition. My Mom was their first secretary, so she knows the website’s representation of their history is inaccurate.
Hugh Steven, in his book about the history of Wycliffe Associates, says that Bill Butler did not want to do Bible translation himself, nor did he want to “enter Wycliffe through the normal membership channels of SIL and Jungle Camp.” He knew he didn’t have the skills to translate but wanted to use his energies to further the cause of Bible Translation. The first goal Bill Butler had was to gather “a coordinated group of men and women from all across the US that will pray in a concerned way for Wycliffe work, …to show a Wycliffe film and provide hospitality.”[vi]
“In an effort to lay the groundwork, gain a consensus and convince Wycliffe’s administration that a lay organization would work within the framework of Wycliffe’s policies, Dale and Bill met once a week for a planning lunch with top Wycliffe administrators.” Hugh Steven continued.[vii]
In the book Dale is quoted as saying “During these weeks of discussion, we’ve considered the legal implications, researching other auxiliary organizations. I believe we must now test our ideas….” And that’s the way it happened, just some administrators who said, ‘Okay, we’ll let you test the idea’—and of course, Bill Butler’s audacious faith.”[viii]
That weekend, Bill Butler quit his job, not to be a Bible translator, but to identify laymen and their skills and match them with needs in the field.
After later working with others to create Open Doors with Brother Andrew, Christian Resource Management, The Ministries of Corrie Ten Boom, Christian Hope Indian Eskimo Fellowship, Aid to Suffering Saints in Strategic Times, Totonac Bible Center and the Technical Assistance Program, Bill Butler died in 2007.[ix]
I wonder what Bill Butler would think of Wycliffe Associates today.
7. Lying about the goal forty years ago: Bruce Smith says, “more than 40 years later, our goal—to translate every verse into every tongue to reach every heart—remains the same.”[x] This is simply not true. The goal of WA, according to their own website in 2007, was “Wycliffe Associates has supported the worldwide efforts of Bible translation by recruiting and mobilizing lay people to offer practical assistance that frees up missionary linguists from tasks that take them away from translation work.”[xi]
In his book about how ordinary people can be involved with Wycliffe Bible Translators, What a Difference a Team Makes! Hugh Steven writes of the goals of Wycliffe Associates. “The early framers of the WA concept had four simple goals. One, to support and encourage Bible translators and other Wycliffe personnel in their tasks of providing God’s Word for ethnic minorities. Two, to increase public awareness that lay people can be involved... Three, to provide and coordinate opportunities for volunteers… to use their skills... And four, to organize local WA chapters. Wycliffe Associates’ success in achieving these goals is now a matter of public record.”[xii] You can see the dissonance here.
Is it shrewd? Is it sneaky? Is it artful? Is it wily?
You decide.
[i] To read my blog about the history of Bible translation go to my website or click here.
[ii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wycliffe#Legacy
[iii] Steven, Hugh. What a Difference a Team Makes! Credo, 1988. p30.
[iv] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lollards
[v] https://web.archive.org/web/20071107023004/http://www.wycliffeassociates.org/content.asp?pageid=35
[vi] Steven, Hugh. What a Difference a Team Makes! Credo, 1988. p27.
[vii] Steven, Hugh. What a Difference a Team Makes! Credo, 1988. p28-29.
[viii] Steven, Hugh. What a Difference a Team Makes! Credo, 1988. p28-29.
[ix] http://65583.stablerack.com/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=40524&columnid=
[x] https://wycliffeassociates.org/who-we-are/message-from-our-president
[xi] https://web.archive.org/web/20071107022959/http://www.wycliffeassociates.org/content.asp?pageid=2
[xii] Steven, Hugh. What a Difference a Team Makes! Credo, 1988. p14.
[xiii] Smith, Bruce. Living Translation: My Story. Xulon Press, 2013. P64.
[xiv] https://www.amazon.com/Living-Translation-Bruce-Smith/dp/162839630X
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