Using God As An Excuse To Hate

Humans are ingenious at using God to justify some of their vilest impulses and behaviors. It is one of the great ironies of our history as a species that what so many of us recognize as the ultimate good (God) has been employed to provide a rationale for the perpetration of so much evil. In fact, down through the ages, more wickedness has been wrought in God's name than has been attributed to any other single justification that we can imagine. Take just a moment to consider the wars that have been fought on God's behalf, the genocides and murders which have been performed in his name, the slavery/oppression and racial prejudice that has been justified as being a part of his will, the violence against children and women which has been justified as a component of honoring and obeying him, the theft of resources and destruction of our natural environment which has been justified as being ordained by him, and the abandonment or shunning of family and friends which has been attributed to putting God first. Indeed, when we face the mountain of human misery and hatred which has been ascribed to God, it's a wonder that there aren't more atheists among us!

Moreover, unfortunately, these human notions about using God as an excuse for our wickedness have found there way into the collection of writings which we call the Bible (the Judeo-Christian Scriptures). In the book of Genesis, man's dominion over women, land, resources and other creatures is assured by Divine appointment. As for God's people, we are told that it was God's will that the Israelites eradicate whole peoples (commit genocide) in the course of their acquisition of the lands which God had promised to them. In those same writings, slavery is not only permitted - it's regulation is also codified in the "Law of Moses." Parents are given permission to beat and stone their children (Indeed, they are informed that it is their duty to do so when disobeyed or disrespected). Even in the New Testament, it is possible to carve out numerous justifications for paternalistic, misogynistic and other antisocial behaviors. Those same Scriptures have also been employed by Christians to justify excommunicating/disfellowshipping/shunning their brothers and sisters in Christ and to abandon or shun family members who do not share their views. (Laying aside the abundant evidence of errors and contradictions within Scripture, I believe that the existence of the passages just noted provides us with the most compelling evidence that Fundamentalist and Literalist attitudes toward Scripture are unsustainable.)

Although it can be entertaining to watch Fundamentalists twist in the wind in their attempts to reconcile those dark views of God with the positive image of him which they attempt to project to the world, there are some theological realities which simply cannot be finessed. God is either love or he isn't (I John 4:8, 16). While I would argue that theology cannot be reduced to mathematical precision and doesn't have to conform to the scientific method, it also cannot dismiss or ignore logic or refuse to supply some kind of legitimate rationale for its defense.

Hence, if God is love, then he cannot simultaneously be hate (the two are opposite extremes on an emotional continuum). Likewise, if Paul's definition of love is valid (see I Corinthians 13:4-7), then God cannot be impatient, unkind, jealous, prideful, rude, irritable or unforgiving. If Jesus was correct in his distillation of the Law into two foundational components (love of God and neighbor), then Paul was correct in his declaration that love fulfills the Law (see Romans 13:8-10). God is either a respecter of persons, or he is not (see Romans 2:11). God wants all of humanity to be saved, or he does not (see I Timothy 2:4). It is either impossible to separate us from God's love, or it is possible (see Romans 8:35-39). In other words, if we can qualify these statements, then we have effectively rendered them meaningless in the broader context of our theology! Stated yet another way: To avoid cognitive dissonance and the undermining of our Christian theology, God would NEVER command or condone genocide, racial hatred, murder, excommunication/shunning or any other kinds of antisocial behavior. Thus, ANY attempt to justify our antisocial behaviors by assigning them to God or his will must be judged to be inconsistent with sound theology, entirely self-serving and blasphemous!