the angry, bloody God of the Bible? part 3

-
I didn't have time to research and write today, but I did have time to read. My eyes and ears are "open" to this topic, and I'm seeing how others are struggling like myself with God's violence.

Here are a couple I came across today.

Morgan Guyton is an associate pastor in a United Methodist church. I follow him on Twitter and after clicking through a couple links I ended up on his post about God's anger, God’s wrath as a cosmic spiritual immune system. He's a blogger after my own heart. His blogs are too long and bleed all over the place. They are an absolute mess, and I love it. I also really dig over-extended metaphors. I don't know if I buy all of his ideas in this post, but I identify with his struggle.

Richard Beck is a professor of  psychology at Abilene Christian University. He, too, is a believer who wrestles with God. Yesterday he wrote a post Devoted to Destruction: Reading Cherem Non-Violently. He writes about his jailhouse Bible class reading Joshua.
Cherem (also spelled herem) refers to the wholesale destruction of all living things--men, women, children and animals--that God commands when the Israelites captured a city. The word occurs 21 times in the Old Testament and most of those, eight references, occur in the book of Joshua.
Joshua is a thorn in my side too. Not unlike the conclusion of Douglas Earl's The Josua Delusion, Beck writes "Having recently read the book of Joshua I was struck by the following: Cherem doesn't work. That seems to be one of the take home points of the book."

I appreciate their wrestling. The commenters wrestle over more details as well.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why did Peter put his coat on before jumping in the water? John 21:7

-
I have the great pleasure of facilitating every week a Bible discussion group with several high school students. We've been discussing the Gospel of John  this past year, and we finally finished tonight. We enjoyed the humorous scene John writes about in this last chapter. The great apostle John can't help himself when it comes to embarrassing his fellow inner circle apostle; the denial of Christ, his slowness in getting to the empty tomb, and this event in the last chapter. John 21:7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. What's the joke? Well John is the first to realize that Jesus is on the beach, #humblebrag, but then Peter puts ON his coat before jumping out of the boat? I've seen some academic ink spilled trying to explain this weird behavior on the part of this fisherman ( good one ...
Read more

bike review: Actionbent JS2-US, for sale

-
Image
Update 2011: Sold to the LBS in trade for something new. Pictures soon. Update May 2009. This baby needs a tuneup, cables and tires, and I bought something new . If you are interested in buying this from me for $350 and are willing to pick it up in New London County Connecticut, contact me by email or facebook. Both contact methods can be found to the right below the "about me" section. Click on "contact the Umblogger." Here is my new bike review from April 2007, 2 years ago. I still think the Huffy Star-Spangler would be my ideal bike. I bought a recumbent bike last month from Actionbent and have been using it for my commute. here is a picture of the Jet Stream 2, understeering. i've been a bicycle commuter for years but last summer i developed at work a bad case of tendinitis in both wrists which made riding painful. one day i longed for my old Huffy Star Spangler with the banana seat and the hot rod handle bars and pined for the good old days. then i remembe...
Read more

Binishell - concrete dome homes

-
Image
IM Design has been bringing great housing alternatives to its blog lately. Like this thing. Binishell : These pictures are pretty old, but there are new ones at the new website, Binishells.com . There is similar technology in use in the US used by Monolithic Dome . Monolithic seems to take more work. Bini lays the re-bar in circles on top of the air bladder, but springs run cross wise through that steel. The concrete is poured on the flat bladder and re-bar and springs and then the bladder is inflated before the concrete sets. All the technical details are explained on the older version of the website. Insulation still needs to be added on the dome and a finish coat after that. Monolithic blows up the bladder first, then sets up re-bar inside then insulation is sprayed on then concrete. No matter what, I like domes and round homes .
Read more