Editor,
In the Bible, Samson was a suicide bomber. He prayed to God to strengthen him to do revenge and to murder thousands of the enemy. The building Samson destroyed was full of men and women, and 3,000 more people were on the roof.
Samson killed more people in his suicide bombing than the hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001. Have you heard any preacher, priest or rabbi strongly condemn Samson's vengeful mass murder of thousands of people?
The Bible contains some of the worst poison and some of the most precious wisdom ever written. Many people foolishly swallow both the poison and the wisdom and call it all the word of God. This is dangerous stupidity.
Deuteronomy 7:2 says, "And when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them; then you must utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them, and show no mercy to them."
Joshua 10:40 states, "So Joshua smote the whole land; he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded."
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For more torture and mass murder done in the name of God, read the books of Deuteronomy and Numbers in the Bible. Hitler was not the first to commit genocide. Columbus and other European invaders of the Americas were not the first to massacre multitudes in the name of God.
The Bible states that God commanded total genocide - mass murder of every man, woman and child - of the people living in Palestine 3,000 years before Hitler. This is now U.S. nuclear policy toward enemy nations.
No wonder many Bible believers who swallow the Bible's poison as God's truth can build and finance nuclear weapons at Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories with no guilt, conscience or shame. Those Bible verses about God commanding mass murder are spiritual poison about a vicious, racist, cosmic terrorist who I refuse to worship and would never want to spend eternity with.
Many tribes and nations throughout history have believed they were God's favorites, God's chosen people. They have used God's name to justify slaughtering their enemies. This is completely contrary to the Bible's precious wisdom about Jesus praying for forgiveness for his murderers as he died under severe torture. Jesus taught us to love our enemies and to do good to them, to treat all people with love and nonviolence just as we want others to treat us, to return good to those who do us evil.
Gandhi said the only people who do not realize Jesus was nonviolent are Christians.
Always read the Bible with extreme caution. Spit out its poison, but take to heart its wisdom and live it. Use good sense and the golden rule to decide which is which.
Don Schrader
Daily Lobo reader
