![]() ![]() This led them to justify the slaughter of entire communities (Deuteronomy 20:10-18). Non-Israelites who lived within the area believed by the Hebrews to have been promised to them by God were seen to pose a great temptation to them to abandon their faith. God demanded purity and strict obedience, and idolatry and blasphemy were punishable by death (Exodus 20:3, 5). The first of the Mosaic commandments prohibited the Israelites from worshipping any other gods but Yahweh. ![]() This is probably what most Jewish people would affirm today.īut collective punishment and indiscriminate war were also commanded or approved in the Hebrew Bible, especially in cases of idolatry. ![]() This would also be consistent with punishing only those guilty of crimes (Deuteronomy 24:16) and limiting the use of deadly force to the defense of innocent others or oneself. So perhaps we might interpret the image-of-God idea to mean, All persons have a basic right not to be killed, but they can forfeit that right if they commit a serious enough crime. But that is not what the ancient Hebrews concluded, since many offenses were subject to capital punishment, a form of killing (see examples in Exodus 21-22). One might infer from that idea that no killing of persons would be allowed at all, that the concept of human beings as made in God's image would entail strict pacifism, an absolute duty not to kill people. Why is murder wrong, other than its obvious conflict with love of neighbor (Leviticus 19:17-18, 33-34)? Essentially because people are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27, 9:6). One of the Mosaic commandments prohibits murder (Exodus 20:13). Most of my comments will be about Christianity, but I'll start with the Hebrew Bible, since it is considered sacred by all three traditions. Questioning the moral justification of holy war leads, moreover, to troubling questions about the legitimacy of some basic theological claims and the authority of foundational religious scripture. The same religious traditions that affirm God to be compassionate, merciful, and just, also include more disturbing claims that promote religious hatred and intolerance, and sadly have provided a rationale for aggressive holy war. The problem of indiscriminate holy war is particularly difficult for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to eliminate from within because it's so deeply rooted in their scriptures and traditions. There may even be a genetic tendency in our species, like that of our chimpanzee relatives, to attack and kill others for no reason except that they aren't "one of us." (Wrangham and Peterson)īut religious violence can take on a particularly intense and ruthless character, if the objects of that violence are seen as blaspheming or insulting God, as the enemies of God or God's way narrowly conceived. And some of the most appalling atrocities in history have been rooted not in religion per se but rather in racial or class hatred. For example, just a few days prior to the September 11 attacks, two young men from the Sacramento area each killed half a dozen people, apparently out of personal revenge. People seem to be able to invent all sorts of rationales for mass killing without feeling the need to cite the will of God. Religion is clearly not the only catalyst of total war and other forms of indiscriminate violence. Why then do some members of those same communities believe that it is their moral obligation to wage aggressive holy war, even to annihilate innocent people in God's name? What aspects of their scriptures and traditions tend to support violence against "infidels"? What ethical principles-religious and non-religious-can we affirm in response to those ideas and the atrocities that they sometimes engender? In contrast to the deep hatred that obviously inspired the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the vast majority of Muslims, like their Jewish and Christian counterparts, are appalled and sickened by terrorism, and utterly repudiate the mass murder of innocent people. As a result, those communities have often nurtured people of extraordinary kindness and courageous commitment to justice. In spite of the many differences among Christians, Jews, and Muslims, they share a fundamental belief in God as compassionate and just. Adapted from an Ethics at Noon presentation given at Santa Clara University on 25 September 2001. ![]()
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