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Bible passages considered immoral by
many of today's theologians and secularists:

One example: The protection of civilians during wartime:

Comparing of the Bible with a secular standard:

The Bible: "Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with
him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." ₁

Geneva Convention: Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid
down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all
circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex,
birth, or wealth, or any other similar criteria. ₂

Other quotations:

	"God is a being of terrific character...cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust." Thomas Jefferson
	"Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?" Job 4:17
	"Should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a schoolbook? Its morals are pure, its examples are captivating and noble." Fisher Ames, Massachusetts Congressman (1758-1808)
	"...Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints." Revelation 15:3b
	"...texts from the source we call Holy Scripture have been used in the past to defend the divine right of kings and to oppose the Magna Carta; to condemn Galileo and to assert that the Sun does indeed rotate around the Earth; to justify slavery, segregation and apartheid; to keep women from being educated, entering the professions, voting or being ordained; to justify war, to persecute and kill Jews; to condemn other world religions; and to continue the oppression and rejection of gay and lesbian people." Bishop John Shelby Spong 3 (He left out transgender individuals, probably because when he wrote the passage in 2005, at a time when promotion of equality for transgender persons had not reached a high profile)
	"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Timothy 3:16-17
	"The Bible has been used for centuries by Christians as a weapon of control. To read it literally is to believe in a three-tiered universe, to condone slavery, to treat women as inferior creatures, to believe that sickness is caused by God's punishment and that mental disease and epilepsy are caused by demonic possession. When someone tells me that they believe the Bible is the 'literal and inerrant word of God,' I always ask, 'Have you ever read it'?" Bishop John Shelby Spong. 4
	The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction. Jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic-cleanser; a misogynistic homophobic racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." 5 Richard Dawkins.
	The problem with the Old and New Testaments is that they are both dated pieces of literature that reflect the values and mores of those who wrote them between 1000 BCE and 135 CE. Many passages in the Old Testament reflect a tribal mentality that portrays God as hating everyone the people of Israel hated. It also portrays God as killing the firstborn male in every household in Egypt on the night of the Passover, justifies the institution of slavery (except for fellow Jews), and defines women as the property of men. Note that even the Ten Commandments exhort us "not covet our neighbor's house, his wife, his slaves, his ox, his ass, etc." The neighbor is clearly a male, and the things that we are forbidden to covet are all male possessions. These Hebrew Scriptures, however, also define God as love, justice and as a universal being. In the portrait of the "Servant" in Isaiah 40-55 the Hebrew Scriptures portray human life as capable of giving itself away and even of acting in such a way as to draw the pain out of others, absorb it and return it as love. The New Testament portrays Paul as believing that slavery is good if it is kind. Paul also reveals attitudes toward women that are today deeply embarrassing: "I forbid a woman to have authority over a man." "Women should keep quiet in church." Bishop John Shelby Spong. 5

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Special note:

Of the many thousands of essays on this web site, we regard those in this section to be among the most important.

Almost everywhere else in our essays dealing with Christianity, we compare conservative and liberal Christian points of view. This essay is different. Here, we compare various passages in the Bible with current standards of morality -- both secular and religious. This section lists many events in the Bible that are immoral by today's secular standards, including: genocide, murder of people for their religious beliefs, mass murder of innocent children, transferring guilt and punishment from the guilty to the innocent, executing some hookers by burning them alive, etc. They are sometimes called "hard passages" because they seem to portray God as behaving in a way that would be considered highly immoral by most people today.

Some of the early Christian groups, including many in the Gnostic tradition were so offended by what they viewed as profoundly immoral actions attributed in the Hebrew Scriptures (a.k.a. Old Testament) to Yahweh that they rejected all of the Hebrew Scriptures and/or even lowered the status of Yahweh to that of a demiurge -- an inferior deity who lacks moralilty.

The purpose and intent of this section is to show there are some profoundly violent, immoral and unethical passages in the Bible when it is compared to today's secular and religious ethical systems. These passages are casting Christianity and Judaism a bad light. They are causing many potential Christians and Jews to reject the Bible, and may be contributing to the legitimization of violence throughout the culture, and the rapid abandonment of Christianity by older teens and young adults. Perhaps the most serious passages advocate the punishment of innocent people for sins perpetrated by the guilty.

Solving this problem is difficult.

	Most religious liberals have long asserted that the Bible was written by humans who were influenced by their tribal culture, regional violence, and lack of scientific knowledge. Most liberals accept that the passages did not reflect the will of God at the time, and are not the will of God today.
	However, most conservative Christian and Orthodox Jewish leaders take a very strong stand that the entire Bible reflects the will of God. Further, many believe that God does not change his mind. If they were to teach that some biblical passages actually violate the will of God then their followers' faith in the validity of the rest of the Bible might dissipate.

Included below is a link to a companion essay which discusses why it is important to either change, reinterpret, ignore, or remove those passages in religious holy books that are considered violent and unjust by today's standards

Topics covered in this section:

	Part 1: Today's religious and secular moral systems Hard Passages in the Bible Interpreting hard passages from different Biblical viewpoints
	Part 2: Biblical acts of mass murder and genocide
	Part 3: Mass murder of children:
	Part 4: Murdering people because of their curiosity: Murdering people for doing the right thing: Religious intolerance:
	Part 5: Additional hard passages
	God's genocides (being written)
	Passages that transfer sin and punishment from the guilty to the innocent
	Passages about human slavery
	Religious intolerance in the Bible
	Changing holy books in order to modify beliefs and alter behaviors

List of books which deal with hard sayings from the Bible:

Some of these books are written by skeptics and religious free-thinkers who urge that believers ignore immoral passages:

	R.H. Green, "The born again skeptic's guide to the Bible," private publisher (1992), Pages 102 to 111. Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
	R.G. Ingersoll, "Some mistakes of Moses," Prometheus, (1986) Ingersoll (1833-1899) was a leading free-thinker of the 19th century. Read reviews or order this book safely
	Phyllis Trible, "Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist readings of Biblical narratives," Fortress Press, (1984) Order this book safely
	David Voas, "The bad news Bible: The New Testament," Prometheus Books, (1995) Read reviews or order this book safely
	R.J. Weems, "Battered love: Marriage, sex and violence in the Hebrew prophets," Fortress Press, (1995)  Read reviews or order this book safely

Others are authored by Christians who attempt to interpret difficult Biblical sayings from the standpoint of faith and who regard the entire Bible as the Word of God:

	W.C. Kaiser, ed., "Hard sayings of the Bible," Intervarsity Press, (1996) Read reviews or order this book safely
	J.C. Laney, "Answers to tough questions from every book of the Bible: A survey of problem passages and issues,"  Kregal Publ., (1997) Read reviews or order this book safely
	Josh McDowell, "The Bible handbook of difficult verses," Harvest House Publishers (2013), Baker Books (2008) Read reviews or order this book safely
	Norman L. Geisler & Thomas Howe, "The Big Book of Bible Difficulties: Clear and Concise Answers from Genesis to Revelation,"  Kregal Publ., (1997) Read reviews or order this book safely
	Dr. J.D. Watson, "Truth on Tough Texts: Expositions of Challenging Scripture Passages," Sola Scriptura Publications ( 2012) Read reviews or order this book safely

References used:

1. Graphic is copied, with thanks, from the Facebook page "Republican Jesus." Biblical text is from the King James Version.
2. "Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War," International Committee of the Red Cross, (1949) at: https://www.icrc.org/
   
   
3. John Shelby Spong, "The Sins of Scripture: Exposing The Bible's Texts Of Hate To Reveal The God Of Love," HarperCollins, (2005). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
4. John Shelby Spong, "Q&A on the Bible as a weapon of control," weekly mailing for 2007-OCT-31. You can subscribe to these mailings at: http://secure.agoramedia.com/
   
   
5. Richard Dawkins, "The God Delusion," Houghton Miffin, (2006). Read reviews or order this book
6. John Shelby Spong, "A National Religion?," Email Newsletter, 2009-OCT-01.

Copyright © 1997 to 2017 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2017-MAR-06
Author: B.A. Robinson

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