What Would Failure Look Like?
There were two men, both captains of their own ships taking a load of cargo across the ocean. Then they both got an offer for a new adventure which involved going the opposite way they were headed.
The other man took his ship and slowly turned the ship, a bit here, then a bit more, without informing the people on board where they were going and soon, he was going the other way, the cargo and crew were taken on the new adventure and the cargo was sold at the new port even though it was stolen from where it was headed. The man said, “God surely must have blessed my trip because I made it here safely and God didn’t stop me.”
On the last page of his book, Living Translation—Their Stories, Bruce Smith writes the following about the MAST translation process. “A man named Gamaliel offered wise counsel. He said that if the disciples’ actions were simply human efforts they would inevitably fail, but that if they were of God they would certainly succeed. This is my prayer regarding MAST. If it is simply human effort, let it clearly fail. If it is of God, may it abound with all honor and praise to Him.”
On the face of it, that sounds humble and scriptural. The problem with it is this:
Bruce Smith is the second, duplicitous captain in my parable. If they really wanted to follow in the footsteps of the disciples, they would start with nothing and see if God blessed the building and growing of it like the disciples did in the scriptures and like Cameron Townsend did with Wycliffe Bible Translators 70 years ago.
Bruce Smith and Dan Kramer had an idea that they felt came from God. Bruce did not say, “Dan, let’s start a new organization and test to see who will prayerfully come on board and grow with us. Let’s test to see what the accuracy of the translations are over time and let God work.” No!
Instead, they said, “We have this huge ship which is Wycliffe Associates powered by $41 million[1] of donations that is headed to Support Wycliffe Bible Translators Land. We’re going to keep the ship, keep the momentum, keep the donations, keep the funding banquets, keep the name, but steer it to a completely different location. On top of that, we’re not going to be clear about the changes we’ve made. Now that we’ve done that, we can obviously see that God is blessing our work because so many people are behind it and so many ‘translations’ are being completed.”
There were people in tug boats beside the ship yelling warnings. Here are some of the warnings:
A Christianity Today article: Speedy MAST Bible Translation Hits a Bump[2]
Peer-review assessment team cautioned, “the rate of progress and the quality achieved clearly do not substantiate the widely publicized claims made for the accelerated rate of translation that can be achieved through the MAST methodology.”[3]
Christianity Today article: Microwave Bible?[4]
Christianity Today article: Accelerating Accuracy. The Bible Translation Challenge. This was the published statement of Every Tribe Every Nation, an alliance of philanthropic and Bible agencies, representing groups that have developed more than 85% for the Bible translation in the world including ABS, Biblica, Seed Company, SIL, Wycliffe USA and UBS.[5]
Article from May 14, 2020 by Ministry Watch: When Is A Bible Translation Not A Bible Translation? Controversy Surrounding Wycliffe Associates’ MAST Program Raises Tough Questions for Bible Translation Community.[6]
Claims by Wycliffe Associates in Fundraising Initiatives Raise Questions. This is an article published on April 15, 2020 [7] by the Roys Report.
Ministry Watch article by Warren Cole Smith titled: WA Touts MAST and “Print On Demand” Program But New Fund-Raising Initiative Draws Attention To Controversial Translation Process.[8]
Another Ministry Watch article: Wycliffe Associates Claims 30 New Bible Translation Projects Underway In Indonesia.[9]
Claims To Help Spoken-Only Language Groups Gain Access to Scriptures is the title of another Ministry Watch article.[10]
Another Ministry Watch article shares concerns about Wycliffe Associates Says It Will Use Radio To Reach Isolated Language Groups But details of new initiative are few.[11]
An article by Ministry Watch called, What Would Wycliffe Fly?, talks about the waste of a private airplane.[12]
Yet another article by Ministry Watch: When A Church Is Not A Church[13] This article doesn’t mentions Wycliffe Associates by name but the situation of Christian organizations not sharing their 990s is a problem that also pertains to WA because they haven’t shared theirs since 2007.
Grace Fabian wrote them a letter asking about all her concerns in 2018 but never received a response.
Executives and staff leaving in large numbers over years of time.
Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability put Wycliffe Associates under review and instead of humbly fixing the issues they resigned.[14]
New Bible translation organizations formed to pick up the pieces after the two-week MAST training, the translators are left alone.
Seed Company Statement on MAST: “We have not been able to substantiate the strong claim that application of the MAST methodology results in the accelerated production of accurate, distribution-ready translations of Scripture.”
Withdrawal from any accountability or guidance: Withdrawal from being a supporting organization of Wycliffe Bible Translators, Withdrawal from Wycliffe Global Alliance, Withdrawal from ECFA.
Despite being listed as the 10th biggest Bible Translation ministry in the world they are not a part of any of the big Bible translation partnerships such as: Unfolding Word, Illuminations, Wycliffe Global Alliance, etc.
Requests for responses to these allegations have gone unanswered.[15]
What would that ‘stopping’ this big ship look like? How would they even know if God wanted it to fail? What kind of banner in what font are they looking for? It doesn’t seem as if they are really listening. If reports saying that the translations are not accurate isn’t a sign, then what is? If executives and staff leaving in high numbers is not a sign, then what is? If being confronted by the ECFA is not a sign, then what is? If more money is coming in, is that a sign of God’s blessing?
[1] http://web.archive.org/web/20160804150619/https://www.wycliffeassociates.org/docs/reports/wa-2015-annual-report.pdf
[2] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/november-web-only/speedy-mast-bible-translation-hits-bump-wycliffe.html
[3] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/november-web-only/speedy-mast-bible-translation-hits-bump-wycliffe.html
[4] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/june/speed-reading-and-translating-bible.html?share=6SSEqtnNHllVrjaVZ4mO9g2mubLQ%2bUO%2f
[5] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/november-web-only/every-tribe-every-nation-mast-translation.html
[6] https://ministrywatch.com/when-is-a-bible-translation-not-a-bible-translation/
[7] https://julieroys.com/claims-by-wycliffe-associates-in-fundraising-initiatives-raise-questions/
[8] https://ministrywatch.com/wycliffe-associates-touts-mast-and-print-on-demand-program/
[9] https://ministrywatch.com/wycliffe-associates-claims-30-new-bible-translation-projects-underway-in-indonesia/
[10] https://ministrywatch.com/wycliffe-associates-claims-to-help-spoken-only-language-groups-gain-access-to-scriptures/
[11] https://ministrywatch.com/wycliffe-associates-says-it-will-use-radio-to-reach-isolated-language-groups/
[12] https://ministrywatch.com/what-would-wycliffe-fly/
[13] https://ministrywatch.com/when-a-church-is-not-a-church/
[14] https://ministrywatch.com/ecfa-charter-member-wycliffe-associates-resigns-membership-while-under-review/
[15] https://ministrywatch.com/key-executives-depart-wycliffe-associates/
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