Dark Christianity

Recently, some of the readers and I have had a discussion about the relationship between religion and human rights. Some of the cited articles have purported that a person without religion (athiest) cannot have as well-grounded a view on human rights as a religious person. (Recall the original post here, discussion here and here). I was doing some more thinking and reading about this religion-rights debate (more good ustuff here) when I stumbled across some Bible passages that I couldn't believe. The first was Numbers 31: 7 And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males. 8 And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword. 9 And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. 17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. 18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. Numbers 31 advocates: - Genocide (Slew all the males) - Looting ( took all cattle, flocks, and goods) - Rape (all the women children - the virgins - keep alive for yourselves) It is difficult to understand how this is consistent with human rights - it is much more consistent with imperialism. Next on my list of revelations was Joshua 6, involving the battle of Jericho: 20 So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. 21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. 22 But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her. 25 And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Here, we see: - Genocide again (destroyed both man and woman, young and old ... with the edge of the sword) - Support for those who harbor spies (harboring terrorists?) I had to stop after one more, this being 1 Samuel 15: 3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. 33 And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal. Once more: - Genocide (utterly destroy them all) - God-sanctioned personal brutality (Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD) Now, as much as this may be read as a condemnation of Christianity, that was not at all my intent. It is simply a continuing investigation into the religion-human rights interrelationship. Religious types will point to church teaching, saying that it is the basis for universal human rights. They say that anyone who does not believe in God cannot have strong convictions on human rights. However, given the gross violations of human rights demonstrated in the Bible in the above passages, one has to wonder. The common thread in the above verses is that the people committing genocide, rape, and other crimes are doing so with God's blessing. The Bible would have us think that God approves of these actions, as long as it is the chosen people that are committing them. I attribute this to the meddling of man in the writing and translating of the Bible, although it could be just as likely that some people believe that committing these types of acts is justifiable if they are on "God's side". This is a dangerous thought process, and lends itself to all manner of self-justification. For instance, if you are on "God's side", of if your cause is "just", or if "we are good, and they are evil", a person could delude himself into believing that any action against the enemy is justifiable - like torture, perhaps? On another note, it is easy to see the obvious correlations between these parts of the Bible and the fundamentalist Jihad of Islamic terrorists (if one is objectively reviewing the information). If some people (none of the readers or comments in our debate I linked above fit this description; as a point of clarification, I only imply that I am sure everyone knows someone for whom this applies.) have condemned Islamic teaching as evil based on the portion of it that speaks of fundamentalist Jihad, what have they to say for Christian teachings of a similar nature?