Editor,
The fallacious act of cherry-picking with regard to Old Testament scripture has become so frequent today that the average layperson becomes lost in a sea of “straw man” argumentation. Christians themselves have been guilty time and time again of cherry-picking various portions of the Bible in order to substantiate a claim.
However, non-Christians are just as guilty, if not more so.
The Daily Lobo published an opinion letter Wednesday with regard to the “Bible being filled with wisdom [and] poison.” The author repeatedly gave straw man arguments that hold no weight. The amount of proof-texting in regards to war in the Old Testament was downright abysmal. Verses from Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges were used in isolation to condemn war-like actions within the Old Testament. In most cases, and in this one, when people cite these verses, there is no regard for context or exegesis.
Contrary to the vituperative rhetoric of Yahweh being a moral monster, when not proof-texting, the God of the Hebrew Bible is a God of justice, long-suffering and compassion. You can’t read the Old Testament books without a sense of God’s profound care for the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden and the orphaned. Simply put: God demands just laws and just rulers, regardless if you’re offended emotionally.
A proper understanding of Old Testament conquests should be to enter the Christian framework and start with God being all-just and omniscient. That is, you can’t read the Old Testament prophets without, philosophically, understanding God’s attributes. When God, by definition, is all-just and all-knowing his moral prerogatives, in a sense, differ from our own.
What that implies is that God has the right to take the lives of these corrupted and immoral people groups when he sees fit. How long they live and when they die is up to him, since he is, by definition, all-just, all-knowing and the creator.
To be consistent within the Christian framework, since our moral duties are determined by God’s commands, it is commanding someone to do something which, in the absence of a divine command, would have been murder. The act of war was morally obligatory for the Israelites in virtue of God’s command, even though, had they undertaken it on their own initiative, it would have been wrong.
Specifically with the Canaanites, the narrative depicts God giving them over 400 years to repent of their wickedness and abominations, which included child sacrifice. God was patient, yet perfectly just as well.
So, when people assume Old Testament atrocities are really wrong, they assume some objective standard of moral right and wrong. Moreover, by not granting the Christian view of God as him being all-just and all-knowing and then attacking various verses is just purely straw man, fallacious argumentation.
Aside from the weak straw man appeals, tell me now where the “poison” is?
Mac Morin
UNM student
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