According to red words in the Bible, Jesus loves children and punishes anyone who causes them harm. Most of us agree with Jesus’ sentiment about the most vulnerable among us. Children are taught a song that says Jesus loves all the children of the world, regardless of their color. Again, few of us would reject this universal declaration of love and acceptance. Sunday after Sunday, preachers preach up the love of Jesus, yet ignore the fact that, as God, Jesus was anything but loving, kind, and accepting.
To Evangelicals I say, read the damn Bible — ALL OF IT. And then tell me what we should think of Jesus, the second person in the godhead — according to orthodox Christianity, anyway? Read the passages about God ordering violence, murder, enslavement, and rape. And if God ordered it, so did Jesus. The alleged Prince of Peace is anything but when you take the Bible as a whole. Only by proof-texting and using Bible gymnastics can Evangelicals absolve Jesus of culpability for the violent, murderous, perverse behaviors commanded or facilitated by God. Jesus is God, right? If so, it is logical to conclude that Jesus is just as culpable as the other two persons of the godhead: the Father and the Holy Ghost.
In the book of Genesis we find the “100 percent true” story of Noah and his big boat. This story is absurd at every point, but hundreds of millions of Christians and Muslims believe the earth is 6,028 years old, and about 4,000 years ago, God decided to destroy the entire human race — millions of people — with a flood. And so on the appointed day, it started raining and didn’t stop until the highest mountains were covered with water. Everyone died, except Noah and seven other people on his big, beautiful wood boat. God also killed billions of animals for no other reason than that he could. Our God is an awesome God, right?
Millions of people died, including women, children, babies, and fetuses. So much for claim that God loves the little children. He doesn’t. That many Evangelicals do love children is a testament to their humanism, and not God or their religion.
If you want to challenge my assertions in this post, all I ask is that you rebut my claims using the Bible, and that you accept what the Bible says contextually. Good luck with that, Sherlock.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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