BIBLE Good Book undergoes teen-zine revision

A new Bible aims at teens who don't read it.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Hey, girls, want a cool beauty secret? How about some dating advice?
The skinny comes from a Good Book that's been repackaged in pink as a peppy girls' magazine.
In teen-zine guise, Revolve: The Complete New Testament dishes up beaming models, a pastel palette, and more uplift than platform sandals.
A first
Revolve (Thomas Nelson, $15) is the first Bible made in a magazine format, said Laurie Whaley, the project's senior editor.
Its tips are wholesome but perky.
On skin care: "As you apply sunscreen, use that time to talk to God. Tell him how grateful you are for how he made you. Soon, you'll be so used to talking to him, it might become as regular and familiar as shrinking your pores."
On dating: If you're going after that cute guy 'cause you think he'll make you popular, that's selfish, and love is not selfish. "Check your priorities, sister. They're way off."
Says who? Says the Bible.
Revolve, Whaley said, is meant to convey "a new spin, a 180 from where the traditional Bible is." Still, considering the success of Christian rock and the blockbuster "Left Behind" books, this latest Christian crossover into pop culture is hardly outlandish.
In fact, it was a market-driven decision to meet girls in their comfort zone, Whaley said by phone from her Nashville office.
Paying off
The gamble seems to be paying off: More than 30,000 copies have been shipped since Revolve's mid-July release, and the Christian Booksellers Association reports it as one of the five top-selling Bibles.
The Scripture verses unfurl, sedate and unadulterated, across Revolve's 390 pages, but the cover trumpets the added features. Like billboards along The Way, there are "Bible Bios" of women in Scripture and quizzes for lovelorn readers ("Are you dating a godly guy?").
There are tips on finding "inner beauty" and activity calendars (Sept. 17: "Sit with someone you don't know very well today at lunch"; Sept. 18: "Cook dinner tonight and give your parents a rest -- tell them how grateful you are for all they do.").
And, knowing its audience, Revolve dishes up lots of talk about and from boys.
Revolve's fresh-faced models, and its advice that guys prefer girls who are "sensible" and "natural," may be a tonic to youngsters accustomed to high glamour and low self-esteem.
Messages underneath
There are limits to its girl power, however. Beneath the packaging, Revolve bears conservative Christian messages that would make old St. Paul smile.
Among its declarations: "Revolve girls don't call guys," and "Revolve girls are not argumentative."
One entry in an advice column called Blab says, "God made guys to be the leaders. That means they lead in relationships. They tell "you they like you" first, not vice versa.
Elsewhere, it says homosexuality "is clearly sinful," premarital sexual abstinence "is commanded by God and is a liberating lifestyle choice," and "dating a nonbeliever is like playing with fire."
Although reader feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, Whaley said, "we've had a lot of questions" about the don't-call-boys advice. "I don't know if you'll see it in the second edition."
Other niches
Christian publishers already offer specialized Bibles for many demographic niches, and Revolve is hardly the first youth Bible to promise the Coolest Story Ever Told. In fact, its publisher, the venerable Thomas Nelson Inc., produced a hardcover Extreme Teen Bible in 1999 that had pop-culture packaging and side lessons much like Revolve's.
Extreme sold more than one million copies. But Whaley said follow-up market surveys showed that parents must have done most of the buying.
"We asked how often teens actually read the Bible, and the results were, 'We don't.' As a whole, even Christian kids were telling us, 'The Bible is freaky and we don't read it.'"
When they were asked what they did read, Whaley said, the response was resounding: "Magazines, magazines, magazines, magazines. Seventeen, Teen People, Cosmo, Self. Even with Christian kids."
In the works
Thomas Nelson's teen division, Transit, had been planning a Bible for girls ages 12 to 18 because "girls read more than guys," Whaley said. The new magazine-friendly findings, she said, caused the plan to "morph" into the magazine project.
The concept was to present the Bible as a survival guide that, as Revolve's intro says, was "written by and about dreamers and risk-takers," and "is 100 percent accurate and reliable." To help make it reader-friendly, it incorporates as its Bible text Thomas Nelson's copyrighted New Century Version, which Whaley said was written at a fifth-grade level.
Amy McPeak, 17, a high school senior in the suburbs of Nashville, was among the teens recruited to weigh in on the magazine manuscript. She gave it a thumbs-up as "easier to read and really relevant to things I go through."
Also, she said, "One time I went to [the] pool with it, and my friends said it was so cool. We went through the quizzes together."
She said the publisher was starting a second printing of about 50,000 copies. Meanwhile, plans are under way to release a companion boy-mag Bible next year, featuring chat on fashion and dating -- and cars and sports.