Earliest Violence: God’s Killing Fields

regard as a threat. In March 2018, National Public Radio (NPR) reported on a story in Sri

Lanka where the “Buddhist Sinhalese majority torched Muslim homes and businesses in the

island-nation's central hills near Kandy, a day after the government imposed a state of

emergency to quell days of violence” (Neuman, 2018). ARAB NEWS reported that:

The unrest – which has killed more than 250 people and left 140,000 others displaced – began last year in the western state of Rakhine, where nationalist Buddhists accuse the Rohingya Muslim community of illegally entering the country and encroaching on their land. The violence, on a smaller scale but still deadly, spread earlier this year to other parts of the country, fueling deepseeded prejudices against the Islamic minority and threatening Myanmar’s fragile transition to democracy.” (http://www.arabnews.com/news/462428)

Earliest Violence: God’s Killing Fields

Looking back on the recent history of Alaska, it appears that many of the problems of today are related to the attitude of the non-Native caregivers who came to the state in great numbers to “save” the Native people… Before the newcomers came to Alaska the Native people were not in need of salvation. For many centuries their cultural traditions and their knowledge had provided them with the skills to survive successfully in their own environment. The disintegrations started when the non-Native culture, totally foreign to the natural environment of Alaska, caused great disruption between the land and the Native people (Alaska Native Commission, 1994)

An important strategy in the colonization and oppression of Indigenous Peoples has been

the use of a violent, white God and religion. It is important to mention at this point that the

discussion in this section is in no way intended to offend or dismiss the importance that religious

beliefs may have for any individual or group. The intention of this section is only to provide

evidence that violence pervades nearly every aspect of our lives.

In his book, “The God Delusion,” Richard Dawkins (2006) examines the Christian God

in all of his forms and asserts that the irrational belief in God and religion has inflicted terrible

harm on society. God in the Old Testament says Dawkins, “is arguably the most unpleasant

character in all 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”

(p. 31). So what drives Dawkins’ position about God and religion?

Maybe it’s the manner in which God dispenses his uncontrolled, unrepentant violence.

There are numerous passages in the Old Testament Bible that document God’s mind-boggling

killing of people - “lots of people.” In his book, “Drunk with Blood: God’s Killings in the Bible,”

author Steve Wells (2013) scoured the Bible beginning with Genesis to document God’s killing

spree. In his introduction, Wells asks his readers who killed more people – God or Satan? His

estimates conclude that it was God who killed approximately 25 million versus Satan who only

killed 60. The title of his book, ‘Drunk with Blood…” seems fitting since God first uses this

phrase to describe himself (his arrows are drunk with blood): “I will make mine arrows drunk

with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh.” (Deuteronomy 32:42). In Jeremiah 12:12 God

says, “The sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the land to the other end of the land:

no flesh shall have peace.”

Some of the larger number of people killed are tallied up in different chapters of the

Bible. In Genesis 7.23, the Flood of Noah killed all of the 20,000,000 people on earth, except for

Noah and his crew. The flood probably killed most of the animals that did not make onto the

Ark, along with most of the insects, plants, trees, grasses, and parasites. In Genesis 41.25-54 God

sent a worldwide famine that killed 70,000. During the seventh plague sent by God, which was

hail, 300,000 were killed (Exodus 9.25). God was exceptionally tough on children. In Exodus

(12.29-30) God killed 500,000 first born Egyptian children. What about pacifists that complain

about God’s killing ways? In Numbers (16.49) God kills 14,700 people for complaining about

God’s killing. In Numbers (31.1-35) God orders the annihilation of Midianites. Wells says he

estimates that 200,000 were killed. In the final passage, it appears that Moses believed that sexual

violence, pedophilia, rape, sex trafficking, and infanticide was a part of God’s plan:

“The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people. 3 So Moses spoke to the people, saying, Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the LORD's vengeance on Midian. 4 You shall send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war.’So there were provided, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war…They warred against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and killed every male…And the people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and they took as plunder all their cattle, their flocks, and all their goods. All their cities in the places where they lived, and all their encampments, they burned with fire,and took all the spoil and all the plunder, both of man and of beast.Then they brought the captives and the plunder and the spoil to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the people of Israel, at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

“And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war.15 Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live?Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the LORD.Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him.But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.”

In Kings (20.28-29), God killed 100,000 Syrians for calling him a god of the hills. In (2

Kings 19.34, 37.36) an angel of God killed 185,000 sleeping soldiers. Finally, in (2 Chronicles

14.9-14) God aids in the killing of a million Ethiopians (Cushites).

Is there violence in the new Testament? When most think of this religious text it is with

the idea that it is a story about love, mercy, and peace. However, according to religious scholar

Professor Shelly Matthews (nd) the:

New Testament text often, reflect rather than challenge, the violent household and political structures of the ancient world. Jesus tells parables in which beatings, and even killings, of household slaves are affirmed as disciplinary measures (for example, Luke 12:45-47). Paul warns Corinthians, that as their “father,” he might return to them “with a rod,” presumably to beat them (1Cor 4:21). In Gal 5:12, Paul expresses the wish that those who disagree with him on the matter of circumcision might “castrate themselves.”