Religion of Peace: Blessed are the Kin-killers

Before we Christians even think about condemning other scripture as bloodthirsty, we need to completely own our own holy text.
Today takes us to a very dark chapter of Exodus where the Bible says the sons of Levi obtained great favor through murdering family members. Here is the story of their crime in Exodus 32:25-28:

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Bible Question: Why Does God Reward Fraud?

Genesis 27 presents the story of how Rebekah and Jacob conspired to deny Esau the blessing that his father Issac had promised to give him. You should really read the whole chapter, but here is the core of the deception:
Now, son, listen carefully to what I tell you.
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Go to [...]

Bible Question: Why didn’t God kill Cain?

From time to time I thought it might be fun to get people’s different takes on Bible questions that make me wonder.
The first question of the year is from Genesis 4:8-15.

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Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out in the field.” When they were in the field, [...]

I Read the Whole Bible and You Should Too

On December 31, 2007, I finished reading the complete Bible for the very first time using My Daily Catholic Bible. I think it is very important for every self-identified Christian to become familiar with the entire Bible and not just their favorite bits or the portions they hear in church.
Reading the whole Bible offers several [...]

Wait for the Lord

As a Catholic Christian, my church’s Sunday readings are determined by a three year cycle during which we read most of the old and new Testaments. As someone who writes fairly often about peace, war and occupation, this Sunday’s passage from Habakkuk stopped me in my tracks:

Reading 1Hab 1:2-3; 2:2-4
How long, O LORD? I [...]

Apostle Paul, Socialist?

I’ve been working my way through one of the “Bible in a Year” books and ran across this passage in 2 Cor 8:12-15 (bold is mine):

For if the eagerness is there, it is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have; not that others should have [...]

Bible Says: No deployments for newlyweds

My daily tour of the Bible came across this interesting bit:
Deuteronomy 24:5 “When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him. He shall be exempt for one year for the sake of his family, to bring joy to the wife [...]

Selective Literalism: Deuteronomy 23 - Interest / food

As a former Biblical literalist, I’m well acquainted with people saying stuff like “We have to do things this way because the Bible says …, we can’t pick and choose what parts of the Bible we obey.”
You hear this a lot from politicians, particularly in matters like homosexuality and the death penalty.
But the truth is [...]

Political and e-communication advice from the Bible

People sometimes claim that the Bible isn’t relevant to daily life. But Friday’s (10/20/2006) Gospel reading from the Catholic Lectionary has some advice that politicians, bloggers, im’ers, e-mailers and anyone else who communicates electronicly should take to heart:
“There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
Therefore whatever you have [...]