God abhors violence

God abhors violence (and we humans keep forgetting).

When the post-Exilic priestly writers compiled the Torah (the first five writings in the Bible) in the 6^th century BCE, they viewed their history through lenses that gave testimony to their belief that Yahweh is one and they are His/Her witness to the world. They were honest enough to include the good, the bad, and the ugly. James Carroll, author of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, says there are over 600 verses in the Tanak (Bible) that speak of God’s wrath, anger, and violence. But over and over that violence is rejected and love and mercy are affirmed.

The very first act of God in the Bible is attacking the violence of chaos and void and turning it into creation that is repeatedly called “good.” Man’s first act of violence, Cain killing Able, is redeemed by God’s mark of protection placed on Cain. In the Noah myth God’s anger results in near total annihilation of humankind, but GOD REPENTS of His action and promises never to do that again until the end (that’s another story). The Abraham and Isaac story, among everything else that it teaches, is an absolute rejection of human sacrifice as obedience to God (remember that for later). The violence of slavery in Egypt is rejected and overcome by the gift of deliverance. The violence of human selfishness, greed, and anger is overcome with the gift of the Law to guide us in compassion and service to others. The violence of death and destruction at the hands of the Babylonians is overcome by love and Return. The writers acknowledged that Yahweh began as a desert, warrior god but claim that He presented Himself personally to Moses in a burning bush and went on to become the God of Second Isaiah and Lord of all the universe.

Before you spout the anti-semitic lie that the God of the Old Testament was a god of wrath and judgment and the God of the New Testament is a god of love and mercy, I recommend you read the text carefully. The Christian text begins with the violence of a God who demands human sacrifice (remember Abraham?) so He can forgive and love us. It ends (The Revelation of John) with one of the bloodiest pieces of religious literature in history. Jesus did not die to appease an angry god; he LIVED to remind his world that the kingdom of God comes to earth in the care of the sick, hungry, naked, orphaned, marginalized. The world killed Jesus, and the Christian story says God rejected that violence through the story of resurrection. Jesus’ Jewish followers under the guidance of James eventually “got it.” Hellenistic Christianity returned to the violence of the world and reduced the kingdom of God to some far off ideal and made an idol of Jesus.

The Sword Verses and jihad have been a source of criticism and condemnation of Islam for many Jews and Christians. In context, it is necessary to remember that Muhammad and the Quran challenged the violence of polytheism, mistreatment of widows and orphans, licentiousness, and thievery. SOME of his followers, then and now, have prostituted that message of love and mercy. Allah has rejected the violence of the world by giving us the Five Pillars.

God abhors violence in any form. Yahweh abhors the violence of taking land through settlements based on the thin justification of a “promise.” God abhors the violence of racial, religious, and gender bigotry, the violence of state execution, unbridled gun violence, the violence of killing the unborn, the violence of wanton destruction of creation. Allah abhors the violence of ignorance, subjugation of girls and women, the violence of religious war.

God abhors violence by anyone in any form. The only legitimate response to human violence is Tikkun, love God and neighbor, complete surrender to the will of God as revealed in the best of the world’s religious texts. The family of Abraham embodies all of this.