Are you sure God isn't a racist?

[Tex]

Ok, the title's meant to be inflammatory ... obviously I believe just like every other good Mormon that God loves all his children, no matter race.

But I read this quote from Christopher Hitchens, the renowned atheist, and thought it interesting given the "intellectual" insistence that the church's blacks/priesthood stance was strictly a result of misguided prophetic leadership:

“In these books [of the Old Testament] there are the warrants for genocide, for slavery, for the torture of children, for genital mutilation, for annexation, for rape and all the rest of it. It’s a very good thing that this is all man-made.”

It's at times like these that I hearken back to Samuel hacking king Agag to pieces "before the Lord."

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/...ton-and-faith/

[Indy Coug]

The story of Nephi and Laban is a very simple case study of how God's morality may differ from our own imcomplete understanding of it.

At some point, certain acts that might otherwise in a vacuum be viewed as immoral have some divine justification because the moral calculus of God is not fully had by man.

[Goatnapper'96]

Originally Posted by Tex

Ok, the title's meant to be inflammatory ... obviously I believe just like every other good Mormon that God loves all his children, no matter race.

But I read this quote from Christopher Hitchens, the renowned atheist, and thought it interesting given the "intellectual" insistence that the church's blacks/priesthood stance was strictly a result of misguided prophetic leadership:

“In these books [of the Old Testament] there are the warrants for genocide, for slavery, for the torture of children, for genital mutilation, for annexation, for rape and all the rest of it. It’s a very good thing that this is all man-made.”

It's at times like these that I hearken back to Samuel hacking king Agag to pieces "before the Lord."

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/...ton-and-faith/

Just a slob like one of us..........

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Tex

Ok, the title's meant to be inflammatory ... obviously I believe just like every other good Mormon that God loves all his children, no matter race.

But I read this quote from Christopher Hitchens, the renowned atheist, and thought it interesting given the "intellectual" insistence that the church's blacks/priesthood stance was strictly a result of misguided prophetic leadership:

“In these books [of the Old Testament] there are the warrants for genocide, for slavery, for the torture of children, for genital mutilation, for annexation, for rape and all the rest of it. It’s a very good thing that this is all man-made.”

It's at times like these that I hearken back to Samuel hacking king Agag to pieces "before the Lord."

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/...ton-and-faith/

The source and substance of the Old Testament is not a mystery to anyone who cares to look. Nor does it make you an atheist if you just face the obvious facts.

Biblical exegesis and archeology--science--have demonstrated a book that was developed over a long, long time by men and/or women, and reflects in many respects attributes of primitive tribal culture, including tolerance for warfare, genocide, slavery, child torture, polygamy, conquest, rape, as well as beautiful renderings of such peoples' mythology. See also, the Iliad. The Old Testament is one of the world's greatest literary works, and its place as a primal source of our culture is indubitable and sublime. But anyone who cites the Old Testament as authority or justification for a religion's racist beliefs and pratices is an unschooled ignoramous, or, well, just a racist.