A reader writes: Righteous? Just?

A reader writes …

I heard you speak this morning in Fort Wayne and I just want to thank you. You hear this a lot, I am sure, but reading you fills a void in my soul because I know that I am not alone. Thank you so much.
… This morning you asked the question, with the hope that someone would research it as to how the word Diakaios got mistranslated as righteous in English translation so much, especially in the book of Romans. (nice run on sentence, eh?)
So here is my question: Do you think that maybe King James himself instructed the scholars to do this in order to justify imperialism? If we are “the righteous,” instead of “the just,” then what we do to other cultures is okay because now they are always “the other” and less favored by God.
The second question goes to our frustration as pastors trying to preach reconciliation instead of dominion. I wonder if this imperialistic translation has been used to justify “the doctrine of the empire” instead of proclaiming “the good news of the Kingdom.” Most of what seems to divide us in US Churches is the assumed patriotism that Christianity implies -a narrative falsely disseminated by too many Christian media sources. But we are in a culture where power is shifting at an alarming rate, and churches that “prosper” are those who capitalize on the fear of that loss of power. How do we proclaim good news to those who are feeling weaker and weaker when the political rhetoric is stacked against us?
I wrote an unworthy piece about diakios on my own blog: http://revnerd.blogspot.com/2011/06/dikaios-right-word-translated-wrong-way.html and thanks to you, I updated the use of the word righteous in Romans specifically with the term “restorative justice.” It just makes more sense.

Thanks for the note. About your question regarding King James – He couldn’t be to blame because his project was building on previous translations … Wycliffe’s and especially the Geneva Bible, among others. There’s a tremendous book that details the politics behind the King James Bible – Adam Nicolson’s God’s Secretaries. I highly recommend it.
But as to your main point … I agree: “interpretation by translation” of justice/righteousness – and also atonement/reconciliation, by the way – have huge impacts on our understanding. It’s amazing how much changes when we question just those two interpretive choices made by translators of many English versions. Thanks for your courage in speaking up. If more and more of us have the courage to differ graciously, other minds and hearts will begin to change, just as yours and mine have begun to do. As you said in your blog, the Bible makes so much more sense in that new light.