Passerby,
One fine fall morning on the farm, I was sitting alone in my favorite chair, lap blanket in place, early morning sun streaming in, steaming cup of black coffee on the side table, enjoying my morning meditations when my spiritual life took a hard left turn, and I was never the same again.

Don’t you just love it when that happens?

I was reading a book by Dr. David Arthur DeSilva, An Introduction to the New Testament, when I read these words, or something very much like it, “For these two reasons alone, we need to bring a literal understanding of the documents of the Bible into question as the infallible, inspired word of God;

1) for the Bible’s historic endorsement of the abuse, neglect, marginalization, and domination (violence directed at) of women present throughout its pages, old and new testaments, and
2) for the systemic endorsement of violence in the Hebrew scriptures.

Both are contrary to the teaching of Jesus.”

I was stunned; I closed the book and could read no further. How did I miss this? True, right there in front of me, but I needed someone to say it. Surely, I must have seen this but filed it away because I am not that learned, and I thought somehow it would work out as I came to know Her more. And what else could I do since I believed the Bible was the inspired word of God?

If it said, God said, then God said it!

But when the Hebrew scriptures say that God told the Israelites, through Joshua, to murder every living thing, man, woman, child, and all cattle, sheep, and donkeys in Jericho (Joshua 6:17-21) as an offering to the Lord, I am ashamed of and for them. Genocide is not okay.

Or how about this one from Numbers 15,

“While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses, Aaron, and the congregation. They put him in custody because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. And the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.”

—Numbers 15:32-36

I and the entirety of Western civilization learned our morality from Rabbi Jesus. He taught us non-violence. Jesus commands us to treat others as we hope to be treated by them (Matthew 7:12-14). So…when I read that the Father of Jesus commanded genocide or that She told Moses to murder a man for gathering sticks to heat his tea for breakfast, the question becomes, is Jesus more moral than his Father? He taught us that was not okay. Or am I, as a follower of what Jesus taught, more moral than God?

“God is Love” (1 John 4:7-8). She never acts or speaks apart from Her character. Genocide and murder are not loving, no matter the source of the edict, so the answer to both of the previous questions is no, not true. She, who is Love, could not have commanded Joshua to kill every living thing in Jericho or command Moses to have the man killed for the crime of gathering sticks. So…what happened here? Where did the directions come from, if not God?

• • •

Evolutionary Bible. Cultures Evolve.

A wrong-headed comment I received claimed that to understand the complete picture of the Father, we must combine the teaching of Jesus with the god of the Old Testament since Jesus did not reveal the whole story. Really? So…I need to kind of average them out to get the scoop on who god really is? So, the genocide/murder of the Canaanites endorsed and assisted by god, and the “Love your neighbor (Mark 12:28-31)” and “Love your enemy (Matthew 5:43)” taught by the Prince of Peace are compatible teachings? Not! No one can legitimately use our Father, as revealed by Jesus, to justify murder. Not even the authors of the books of the Bible. So what happened? How did violence in the name of God end up in the Bible?

Fr Rohr wrote in Falling Upward,

“Most of us do not see things as they are, but as they are.”

First, assuming that the authors were intentionally misleading is not helpful. They were sincere. The god they endorsed, and at least partially created, was no more or less violent than they were. When people read their scriptures, they hear from their ‘god’ what they expect to hear. Most are serving a ‘god’ created in their image, not the other way around. A loving person will have a relationship with a loving Creator. An angry person will affirm an angry, disappointed ‘god,’ and so forth. I suggest we must first have the right God.