The inhumanity of humans toward one another is beyond understanding. How can we think of our species as "a little lower than the angels" or "in the image of God"? It doesn't say much for either angels or God.
"The worst of us are the Bible-believers," said a friend.
He was talking about the true believer literalists, those certain they stand on the side of God. I argued that religious fanaticism was not limited to believers in the Judeo-Christian Bible, but fundamentalists of all religions.
The more passionate the belief, the greater the sense of just cause.
The more passionate the preaching, the greater the danger that someone will take it seriously.
You could argue—and probably be right—that ethnic divisions are as old as civilization. Clans, tribes, races, nations and other categories establish identity. We separate self from other. We tend to be defensive of our own territory and sometimes invasive of another's territory. It has gone on from the time of Cain and Abel in biblical lore.
The Bible has God conspiring in this kind of human against human behavior. For instance, read Numbers 31:
"The Lord said to Moses, 'Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites…'"So Moses rounded up 12,000 warriors and sent them to war.
"They warred against Midian, as the Lord had commanded Moses, and slew every male."They took all the women and children as well as all their possessions,
"All their cities in the places where they dwelt, and all their encampments, they burned with fire, and took all the spoil and all the booty, both of man and of beast."Folks, it gets worse. Our good friend, Moses, beloved and adored hero of the faith, is angry with his troops for not completing the job.
"Moses said to them, 'Have you let all the women live?'"Not only does he want the women slain, but all the male children as well. Young virgin women are to be kept by their captors.
Then Moses has those who participated in this horror go through seven days of purification. Division of the loot followed, then the offering of a portion to the Lord.
The whole idea of a "promised land" is based on the assumption that the land belongs in hands of somebody chosen by God, rather than to the present occupants. What is cause for celebration among the Israelites is cause for mourning by the Midianites and Philistines and Canaanites and others who occupied that desired land.
Our predecessors used "promised land" language when moving onto the American continent, "cleansing" the land of the tribal nations that occupied it. In a religious sort of way we sing "God bless America…" and "America, America, God shed His grace on Thee…" not realizing how much one people's thanksgiving was on the terrible displacement of others. If we realize it, we seem to assume some divine blessing on the whole activity.
To the degree that religion encourages tribalism of any sort, it shares major blame for wars of this type. We can pray for peace (who doesn't?) but we would be better served to confess our own guilt. We are all tribalists. One of my Granddads' peace poems has a line that reads:
"My family, my race, My country, my place, My commerce, my trade, My honor, self made, My power, my right, My virtue, we'll fight!" (Arthur D. Weage)It's a terrible disease. When it surfaces it needs to be suppressed. Moses must be stopped before his insanity spreads. Or do we simply let Moses run his course? Do we believe Moses really hears the voice of God? It is bad enough when Moses is played by Charlton Heston. It is even worse when Moses is played by Milosevic. And it is still worse when Moses is played us.