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Christian Fundamentalists are forever telling us that YHWH, the biblegod, is love. They tell us that he is compassionate and caring. He does not wish the death of the wicked. "God loves the sinner but hates the sin" is an oft-repeated phrase. In fact, they'll repeat it ad nauseam, even when you don't want to hear it anymore. We are also told by Fundamentalist pro-lifers that biblegod commands us to protect the weak and the defenseless, and what could be more defenseless than a fetus, or an infant sucking at his mother's breast, they ask?
They, on compassionate grounds, would have any and all abortions legally considered a murder and banned by force law. It is, for them, a settled issue because the god of the Bible "tells them so." The fact that there is nothing in the Bible about abortion being a murder doesn't seem to deter them in the least from pontificating and calling any abortion a murder. To be fair, there is one passage where an altercation between two men "damaging" a woman and resulting in the loss of her fetus, would obligate the offender to pay damages: TO HER HUSBAND. (Note: all verses will taken from the BBE, the Bible in Basic English)
Exodus 21:22 ¶ If men, while fighting, do damage to a woman with child, causing the loss of the child, but no other evil comes to her, the man will have to make payment up to the amount fixed by her husband, in agreement with the decision of the judges. (BBE)
Permit me to digress for a moment: I'm not in favour of abortion as a means of contraception. I think it's a stop-gap measure for people who can't control their sexual impulses, or who haven't the intelligence or foresight to use contraceptive means. However, I agree with the Supreme Court ruling which allows an abortion up to and until a fetus is viable. I also believe that terminating a pregnancy to prevent the birth of a severely deformed child, for instance, or the product of a rape or incestuous relationship, among other examples, is acceptable though not necessarily desirable.
Having said that, let's get back to the subject at hand. Does the Bible really teach that YHWH is a compassionate deity. Does it really teach that he "loves the sinner but hates the sin?" Does it teach that YHWH is just, bringing the consequences of sin only on the guilty? And if so, who are the guilty?
In this installment of "Biblegod The Good" I would like to focus on children, especially suckling infants and the unborn. Fundamentalists tell us the Bible teaches that bibleod cursed the earth after Adam had sinned and that all his descendants were born in sin, that is, were born with a "sinful nature" which has a proclivity toward evil. Even as babies, they tell us, we are all guilty before biblegod and deserve to be tormented for eternity in the fires of hell. This is known in Fundamentalist circles as the doctrine of Original Sin.
Genesis 2:17 But of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not take; for on the day when you take of it, death will certainly come to you.
Psalm 51:5 Truly, I was formed in evil, and in sin did my mother give me birth.
Rom 5:12 For this reason, as through one man sin came into the world, and death because of sin, and so death came to all men, because all have done evil:
1Cor. 21 For as by man came death, so by man there is a coming ba death, so by man there is a coming back from the dead. 22 For as in Adam death comes to all, so in Christ will all come back to life.
But YHWH, they tell us, is a compassionate god who forgives iniquity and will not punish those who are undeserving. Is this true? Does YHWH have mercy on the innocent? Does he love children, protect the innocent and the defenseless? Read the following verses and see for yourselves.
Hosea 13:16 Samaria will be made waste, for she has gone against her God: they will be cut down by the sword, their little children will be broken on the rocks, their women who are with child will be cut [ripped] open.
Hosea 9:11 ¶ As for Ephraim, their glory will go in flight like a bird: there will be no birth and no one with child and no giving of life. 12 Even though their children have come to growth I will take them away, so that not a man will be there; for their evil-doing will be complete and they will be put to shame because of it. 13 As I have seen a beast whose young have been taken from her, so Ephraim will give birth to children only for them to be put to death. 14 O Lord, what will you give them? Give them bodies which may not give birth and breasts without milk. 15 All their evil-doing is in Gilgal; there I had hate for them; because of their evil-doing I will sem; because of their evil-doing I will send them out of my house; they will no longer be dear to me; all their rulers are uncontrolled.
Exodus 12:29 ¶ And in the middle of the night the Lord sent death on every first male child in the land of Egypt, from the child of Pharaoh on his seat of power to the child of the prisoner in the prison; and the first births of all the cattle. 30 Then Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians; and a great cry went up from Egypt; for there was not a house where someone was not dead.
Psalms 137:7 ¶ O Lord, keep in mind against the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem; how they said, Let it be uncovered, uncovered even to its base. 8 O daughter of Babylon, whose fate is destruction; happy is the man who does to you what you have done to us. 9 Happy is the man who takes your little ones, crushing them against the rocks.
1 Samuel 15:2 The Lord of armies says, I will give punishment to Amalek for what he did to Israel, fighting against him on the way when Israel came out of Egypt. 3 Go now and put Amalek to the sword, putting to the curse all they have, without mercy: put to death every man and woman, every child and baby at the breast, every ox and sheep, camel and ass.
[Note: The above was for something that Amalek h was for something that Amalek had done to Israel some 400 years before. (Ex. 17:8,9). It would appear that YHWH has a rather good memory.]
Isaiah 13:11 And I will send punishment on the world for its evil, and on the sinners for their wrongdoing; and I will put an end to all pride, and will make low the power of the cruel. 12 I will make men so small in number, that a man will be harder to get than gold, even the best gold of Ophir. 13 For this cause the heavens will be shaking, and the earth will be moved out of its place, in the wrath of the Lord of armies, and in the day of his burning passion. 14 And it will be that, like a roe in flight, and like wandering sheep, they will go every man to his people and to his land. 15 Everyone who is overtaken will have a spear put through him, and everyone who goes in flight will be put to the sword. 16 Their young children will be broken up before their eyes; their goods will be taken away, and their wives made the property of others. 17 See, I am driving the Medes against them, who put no value on silver and have no pleasure in gold. 18 In their hands are bows and spears; they are cruews and spears; they are cruel, violently putting the young men to death, and crushing the young women; they have no pity for children, and no mercy for the fruit of the body.
Hosea 10:13 You have been ploughing sin, you have got in a store of evil, the fruit of deceit has been your food: for you put faith in your way, in the number of your men of war. 14 So a great outcry will go up from among your people, and all your strong places will be broken, as Beth-arbel was broken by Shalman in the day of war, as the mother was broken on the rocks with her children. 15 So will Beth-el do to you because of your evil-doing; at dawn will the king of Israel be cut off completely.
2 Samuel 12:13 And David said to Nathan, Great is my sin against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, The Lord has put away your sin; death will not come on you. 14 But still, because you have had no respect for the Lord, death will certainly overtake the child who has newly come to birth. [...] 18 And then on the seventh day the child's death took place. And David's servants were in fear of giving him the news of the child's death: for they said, Truly, while the child was still living he gave no attention when we said anything to him: what will he do to himself if we give him word that the child is dead?
[Note: David and Bathsheba should both have died, according to Lev. 20:10, but instead YHWH killed their firstborn child, thus refusing to honour his own law as set forth in Deut. 24:16. Just and compassionate? You be the judge.]
I could go on and on, showing verse after verse the horror that is inflicted on children in the name of biblegod, but I feel the above are sufficient to establish my case. What is the typical Fundamentalist defense where this is concerned? Permit me quote, from a discussion list posting, what one Fundamentalist had to say in his god's defense, and please note that all of the Fundamentalists I've ever known use just this kind of "defense":
"Christians freely admit that ALL life derives from God and can be disposed of by Him at His Will. Such is especially true of sinful man, who is hell-deserving and indeed, without the mercy and intervention of God hell-bound, including children in the womb, infants and children."
"As a further point of which you are obviously ignorant, babies/children are hell-deserving not through a specific committed sin, but through what they are by nature i.e. sinful beings. "
"1. God is entitled to kill all
2. God does not kill all
3. Therefore God is merciful (compassionate).
Simple when you think about it Farrell.""There was no lesson to be learned. Christians will not disown their God because He upsets a few specks of finite dust who *think* they are in a position to challenge God's RIGHTEOUS judgement...."
"Killing babies was always wrong, is always wrong, and always will be wrong unless God is doing the killing. Where is the double standard?"
"It is not morally wrong for God to take back the life which He gives to babies, or infants, or children or adults. It is morally wrong for man to set himself up as god and take life in the name of science and women's so called rights."
All of the above quotes may be verified at The Errancy Archives, in the May/99 archives under the subject headings: "Does God Kill Babies (Questions) (1)" and "Christian Insanity". I urge you to read them. The headers are a long download but worth the wait.
It never ceases to amaze me how Fundamentalists can speak of having the "love of Christ" in their hearts and yet be able to defend such atrocities like it was a cake walk. They speak of YHWH having thousands of children slaughtered like you and I would talk about getting a Big Mac and fries. O, the love of biblegod which surpasseth all understanding!
Fundamentalists accuse Atheists of having no basis for morality and yet they, the Atheists, are the ones condemning such actions while they, the Fundamentalists who claim to hold the high moral ground, are the ones defending such horrors. They also accuse Atheists of being uncaring and of being unable to show compassion. In my exchanges with one of the posters, a Sceptic who was objecting to statements like those made above by the Fundamentalist, I shared these emotions:
"Thanks for sharing that with us. I have a four month old grandaughter whom I've been watching do this since she was born. Her Name is Sarah. You should see her, she's so beautiful! What you say touches me deeply because I remember my other two grandchildren, Isaiah and Olivia, now 5 and 3 respectively, doing the very same thing your Madison is doing. And I remember my Kim and my Louis doing that too. I also remember the sense of wonder I had when I saw them sucking at their mother's breasts. It was so beautiful."
"This is one of the reasons I have come to feel so bad about being a Fundamentalist for 18 years and defending this unspeakably monstrous deity the Bible calls YHWH. I was just like Matt. I used the same rhetoric, the same defense, the same senseless arguments. Thinking was not an option."
"The thing that gets me is that Matt is probably a really nice guy, a good man, who loves his kids, if he has any, and his wife, and would be deeply hurt if he lost one of them. But when it comes to his deity, he will defend the most vicious things this "God" is said to have done. I'm convinced that, as I did for those 18 years, he has never stopped to think of the implications of his defenses. He is so convinced of the validity of this book that nothing we say can ever phase him."
"It makes me angry when I read his glib responses to you and others concerning the problems raised about morality, but then I stop to think of just how much he is to be pitied and my anger subsides. I hope that one day he sees just how despicable his "God" is and turns away. And I hope it doesn't hurt him as much as it hurt me, if and when he ever does it."
"Sorry for the length of this post and all the emotion. It makes me want to cry when I read some of the stuff he writes. I think of my children and grandchildren and how horrified I would have been had they been slaughtered mercilessly before my eyes, had I been one of the Amalekites or Canaanites. We have a such long way to go.. We have a such long way to go."
Here was the reply reply I got from Matt, the Fundamentalist who was defending YHWH's atrocities:
"I am sure we are all touched deeply by your emotional baggage - NOT. Save such garbage for those who will buy it."
My emotions concerning the slaughter of innocents are garbage to him. It follows from his response that anyone buying them is foolish as well. Personally, if that's being foolish then please write me up as an utter fool who would rather not worship such a monstrous deity and who thinks that this deity is nothing more than the invention of a barbaric people, the ancient Hebrews, in order to justify their slaughters.
Would you worship this god? Do you think YHWH is just, based on the verses I've quoted above? And one last thing: if you think that this essay was an emotional appeal: you're partly right, it was. I'm hoping that you have enough good ones to see how utterly devoid of feelings for one's fellows one has to be in order to defend such a position. I'm being emotional, you say? I plead guilty as charged. But please don't ignore the biblical data I've presented because I happen to be emotional.
