Yes, another "Hypocrisy Revealed!" post...

Jesus & Mo cartoon, author unknown

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Oh, this is classic. I laughed at this 'cuz it's true. Christians and Muslims are discriminated against. But (and I'll likely get a lot of hate-mail on this one) we brought it on ourselves. Now, I'm not saying that each of us has done things to entice non-believers to hate us, but the vocal part of the group - the part the rest of the world sees - has.

Here are a few examples:

• Fred Phelps - "God Hates Fags!"
• The Ku Klux Klan - according to their website, they are "Bringing a Message of Hope and Deliverance to White Christian America! A Message of Love NOT Hate!"
• The Taliban - ruled Afghanistan with an iron fist, brutally oppressing women and Shia muslims
• Various Catholic and Protestant purges
• Al Qaeda
• The Crusades - purging Islamic occupation of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim Holy Land.

Throughout history, religious figures have used hate to remove opposition to their message. This was true in ancient times, and is true today. In the Torah (Christian Old Testament books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), God commanded Israel to "purge the evil" from Canaan. These books, and the book of Joshua, detail this purge. Jericho, Ai, the five Amorite kings (the sun stood still and hail fell on the enemies!), Makkedeh, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Horeb... The Israelites removed the Canaanites from the land under order from God.

This was ordered by God, and is a concept with which modern-day believers have a problem. How could a "loving God" order the destruction of an entire nation? How could a "loving God" order genocide? Does that mean we are to continue that practice today?

Read part two tomorrow!

Adios,
Clay

(äd-s) [Spanish adiós, probably translated from French à dieu. (I commend you) to God  : a, to (from Latin ad. See ad-) + Dieu, God (from Latin deus. See dyeu- in Indo-European Roots).]