Liberal Christians like the curate that conducted my wedding have real difficulty with some of the violence in the Old Testament, so often their solution is to take a low view of Scripture, questioning whether God really did order such horrific things.
More conservative Christians like myself who take the authority of the Bible seriously are left trying to explain why God would give such repugnant orders. The first thing you need to know about the context is that these were real enemies of Israel who would have had no qualms about killing women and children given the opportunity- indeed their pagan cults encouraged barbaric child sacrifice to placate their own angry imaginary gods. Is that enough to justify this? Many of us would still say no. But at the end of the day, it was never our call to make. If we think we can judge God, we are arrogant indeed.
Where does that leave us? Christians have the New Testament command:
'love your enemies' (Matthew 5:44)
What that really means in a world where Obama is getting rid of some nukes, while still killing children in Afganistan, is still open for debate. Enemies of the west have no such commands. There are no easy answers. And before you write me off as a bigoted right wing blowhard, let me ask you- have you ever worked for a peace organisation? Because I have- Pax Christi. However, nearly all of us fail to truly:
'turn the other cheek' (Luke 6:29)
But Jesus didn't just talk the talk, he walked the walk.
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