‘1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture’: Review

Dir: Sharon ‘Rocky’ Roggio. US. 2022. 92mins

In 1946 the word ’homosexual’ first appeared in the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the American Bible, the result of a committee of white, male academics deciding to merge two oblique ancient Greek nouns in translation. The resulting passages explicitly condemning male homosexuality as a sin in the eyes of God are regularly used as so-called “clobber verses” by the religious right to persecute the LGBTQ+ community. But what if those translators got it wrong?

 By shining a light on this contentious issue, the film may help many  LGBTQ+ Christians finally find a sense of peace

That’s the intriguing question posed by this thought-provoking documentary, which premiered at Doc NYC — where it won the audience award – and now plays at Palm Springs. The directorial debut of Sharon ’Rocky’ Roggio, it draws on archive material and expert analysis to present its case, and should be fascinating enough to reach beyond its core demographic of religious and LGBTQ+ communities; the film received solid crowdfunding support. It has particular potential as a potent education tool for schools, spiritual groups and activist organisations.

Roggio has a deeply personal connection to the material, and framing it through her own experiences gives the film an emotional, as well as theological, heft. As a lesbian Christian, Roggio has endured a lifetime of judgement from her preacher father Sal, and difficult flashbacks are brought to life in sombre black and white line-drawn animations. While the two maintain a relationship of sorts, Sal (who has a central role here as a a key dissenting voice) makes no secret of his desire to “save” his daughter from a lifestyle he believes is some kind of perverse choice, rather than a natural orientation.

Her personal discovery of the potential biblical mistranslation of ’homosexual’ brings Roggio into the orbit of campaigners Kathy Baldock, a straight Christian woman from Nevada, and Ed Oxford, a gay man from San Francisco driven to depression by his attempts to balance his Christianity with his sexual preferences. Both have spent years fighting to make their religion more accepting and inclusive; the path to enlightenment is a hard slog, particularly with far right preachers — seen on video, spouting homophobic vitriol from the pulpit — determined to wield the anti-gay word of Leviticus like a weapon. Sometimes it’s really hard to keep the faith.

Roggio follows Kathy and Ed as they doggedly follow leads about the possible 1946 error, each subsequent revelation shedding yet more light on this etymological conundrum. At Yale University, they find a key piece of evidence which seems to prove beyond doubt that the word homosexual was, indeed, a mistranslation. Interviews with scholars and historians further untangle the mystery, taking in everything from the intricacies of language and shifting cultural perceptions to the toxic patriarchal status quo and the damning relationship between politics and religion. It all makes for a persuasive argument.

But much as Roggio might hope to change her own father’s mind, she is savvy enough to understand that she is unlikely to alter the beliefs of the conservative religious right. She has clearly not made 1946 for them. As evidenced by her own and Ed’s moving experiences, not to mention the myriad LGBTQ+ voices heard throughout, she hopes that, by shining a light on this contentious issue, the film may help many LGBTQ+ Christians finally find a sense of peace.