Righteous Slaughter

         Throughout Human history humans have engaged in what we might rightly call ‘righteous slaughter” – killing their enemies in the name of God.  We can read about such incidents in our Bible as well as in many other religious texts. We are all familiar with the stories of Joshua slaughtering every one in the city of Jerico; They killed everyone, men and women, young and old (Joshua 6: 21), and the slaughter of the priests of Baal by the Prophet Elijah following the contest on Mt. Carmel (I Kings 18” 37-40)   

         Killing people in the name of God has continued throughout religious history. During the Crusades one historian records the Crusaders  defeat of the Moslems In Jerusalem resulting in the blood of the enemy running up to the stirrups of the Crusader’s horses.

         In modern warfare there are numerous incidents of killing the enemy in the name of God. Recently  the video news  showed accounts of the Isis warriors  cutting off the heads of their enemies,  again in the name of God.

         Today the “Laws of War” established by the United Nations do not permit such barbarian behavior. . We regard our nation’s use of   violence as strictly “defensive”  Yet our nation is the largest supplier of high technological weapons to dozens of countries which are not as constrained by our moral standards and are sometimes used causing the death of thousands of innocent civilians.

         We are also reminded that “righteous slaughter” continues to go on in our own country because many of  our  fellow Americans, citing Second Amendment rights, advocate the unfettered sale of military style weapons to anyone regardless of the  often tragic result  by some who hear the ’”call of God” to rid the nation of its enemies?

         We normally regard our Christian religious faith as a call to peace and non-violence. We refer to Jesus as the Prince of Peace. Consequently we cannot ignore or pretend these contradictions do not exist in our land. For the followers of Jesus, Righteous Slaughter  is never an option. And peacemaking  is our response to the Lure of God.