Does God condone genocide?
By Bert Hetebry
Stan Grant points out in his book The Queen is Dead that “… I cannot but see in China what White nations have done the world over. Genocide is genocide. Under their flags, nations committed to Whiteness have erased entire populations, mine included. They have not been held to account. No, genocide is a word they reserve for others” (page 29). As Grant points out, those who accuse China of genocide are beneficiaries of the fruits of colonialism on which European and American economic dominance was achieved, and a close look at that history shows that genocide was a major means of acquiring the lands which produced that wealth.
Accusations of genocide are being levelled against Israel now as mass starvation of Palestinians is beginning to take its toll, as truckloads of urgently needed supplies are waiting for approval to deliver their lifesaving cargoes into Gaza, but waiting, seeming endlessly for permission to enter the sealed off region. The accusations are slowly rising to a crescendo, but ever so slowly as the feed of information is being stifled, as reporter numbers have been decimated, so many counted among the collateral damage of the war zone. Those who remain find it all but impossible to access signals for their phones to operate, or even to be able to recharge their phones.
The genocide Stan Grant refers to is the decimation of indigenous populations through the time of European colonial expansion, beginning with Columbus leading the way into the Caribbean and Americas as Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French and British established plantations producing sugar and tobacco to satisfy growing demand in their homelands and establishing remote prisons either to use the convicts as cheap sources of labour or to place them far from home, to be out of sight and out of mind and if the prisoners wouldn’t work, kidnap people from Africa and enslave them to do the work.
European colonisers brought with them their faith, their beliefs, their Christianity. As they stole the lands, raped indigenous women and killed those who stood in their way, they preached the gospel of Grace through Christ, introducing Biblical law. Somehow there was nothing ironic in on the one hand stealing the land, raping women and killing those who stood in the way and preaching a faith which has a foundational law creed set out in the Ten Commandments which include the laws not to kill, steal or commit adultery. Christian Europeans after all are ‘God’s People’.
The tone deafness of Israeli leaders and the slowness of American and European leaders to acknowledge the humanitarian crisis in Gaza (and the West Bank) is equally disturbing. Women and children are dying, effectively being starved to death as aid is being held up. And those who object to the measures being taken in response to an attack on Israel which took 1200 lives and a 240 hostages is charged with being antisemitic. It took South Africa to first raise the charge of genocide, a nation which suffered under and emerged from the yoke of colonialism.
Judaism, the religion of Israel has the same laws; laws given to Moses and central to the promise of the land to their forebears. The books containing those laws are common across Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
But those laws are interesting in that it seems they only apply to those people who claim to be ‘God’s People’. When we consider the first of the Ten Commandments it becomes clear that they really are about ‘God’s People’. The first four deal with the relationship with God, exclusively worship only that one God, make no idols or use His name in vain and reserve the Sabbath as a holy day devoted to the worship of the only God. Next follows commandments of the relationship within the body of ‘God’s People’.
The laws were received and very shortly after, according to the Biblical book of Exodus, that same God instructed the people to exterminate the Amalekites (Exodus 17:14) and the Israeli Prime Minister referenced that as a rationalisation for the severity of the attacks on Gaza after October 7.
It seems the laws given were for ‘God’s People’, those who were not included became fair game, the laws apparently do not apply to them. Further, the promise of God to Joshua as he replaced Moses as leader of the ancient Israelites was that the land being given would “… extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the great river, the Euphrates – all the Hittite country – to the Mediterranean Sea…” (Joshua 1:3-4). From the river to the sea is the stated aim of Netanyahu, Israeli territory will be from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean… or did he mean the Euphrates?
It is not surprising that Palestinians are treated as contemptouosly as they are when they are clearly not defined as ‘God’s People’.
The disregard for indigenous peoples by colonial powers was equally contemptuous, the rapacity for land unbridled greed, lands stolen, people killed and missionaries followed close behind to wipe out indigenous cultures replacing it with adoration for Jesus. The laws did not apply to the conquered, only to ‘God’s People’.
But it is worthy of note that the Declaration of Human Rights, written in 1948 was written as a response to the horrors of the Holocaust during which over six million European Jews were killed for no other reason than they were Jews, and we should also recognise that several million Gypsies suffered that same fate and did various other groups; homosexuals, people with mental disabilities, and others who were in one way or another marginalised. But then, that declaration is aspirational. Not law.
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
16 comments
Login here Register here-
Lyndal -
wam -
John C -
John F -
paul walter -
Anthony -
Roswell -
B Sullivan -
Canguro -
Anthony -
Terence Mills -
Clakka -
Frank Sterle Jr. -
Frank Sterle Jr. -
Pilock -
paul walter
Return to home pageI understand that Christ said it was time to set aside the Old Testament and replace it with two commandments: to love God, and to love your neighbour as yourself. Followers of Christ, are able to call themselves Christian. The Jewish people never accepted Christ’s teachings, and they continue to follow the Old Testament. Which is why, I suppose, they have no qualms about applying Old Testament rules. The puzzle is why so many people who say they are Christians, are happily supporting the Israeli Jews in this campaign of ethnic cleansing
jews, christians and muslims follow the god of abraham who is a cruel despotic destroyer.
christians vehemently oppose such a claim and have no compunction in killing or seeing moslems die.
My little sister is a lovely committed xstian, but she only shares israeli propaganda.
The killing must stop!!!!!
All the faiths of the book (christians, muslims and jews) ‘worship’ the same supposed ‘god’ who condones maiming and killing those that do not follow ‘his’ teachings. So why on earth do they slaughter each other when they all pray to the same myth? Organised religion will be the death of us all one day…
Sorry to have to bring the three commenters above into the current century but god does not exist. I would suggest that had they had the benefit I’ve had of studying nuclear physics or privately, astronomy, they would have a different view of our universe. And that which has evolved in the tight envelope of this planet’s atmosphere. Can they conceive of the James Webb Telescope looking further back in time and out into the universe and yet it has not found god! The feeble minded who get sucked into these religions by parents and ethnicity will follow the old men of their tribal groups and selfishly pit them one against the other. And the remarkable thing of those who suffered a holocaust last century will dish out the same now as they progressively take over country and territory given to them falsely after the first and second world wars by the British and other Europeans. Just as those of Britain took over Australia telling themselves it was empty land ripe for the taking!
With Lyndal.
No God of my conception is going to condone certain events, but we are allowed to find our own way, it has been suggested.
It is no point in blaming “God”, factual or illusory, when we do most of this rubbish to ourselves and others- this is the human condition and process.
Just the same, it is not hard to hope that “what goes round comes round” as to the Middle East.
An article about genocide in Gaza and no mention of Zionists. What the Israeli govt wants, heavily stacked with the Zs, is escalation of war (and the profits that follow) not with, but in the West – Muslim vs Xtians vs Jews. The Zionists will quietly withdraw and claim victim status. As for God, that seems more like a qualitative state of equalibrium that occasionally individuals find after dropping efforts to find it, eg, Jesus, Buddha, Socrates, Lao Tzu. So to me the question is ‘would Jesus, Buddha etc condone genocide?’ What do you think?
Anthony, Bert is a reader who submitted this piece for publication.
You are welcome to do the same, and mention anything you want to.
Anthony,
The christ (saviour) formerly known as Jesus, according to the New Testament, supposedly said to a non-Jewish woman seeking his help something about not giving the children’s bread to dogs.
This is interpreted as meaning Jesus the saviour (the bread) was only there to save the Jews (the children of Israel) and nobody else (the dogs, aka gentiles – non jews).
When the woman asked if the dogs were allowed to feed on the crumbs that fell from the children’s table Jesus fobbed her off with a pocketful of worthless faith.
Would Jesus condone genocide? Perhaps not, he was the ‘prince of peace’ after all, but if you can kid yourself with faith that it’s only canocide then that’s a different matter.
Buddha wouldn’t have anything to do with genocide. He was one of History’s most famous cynics and he had renounced such worldly desires.
Krishna’s council on the other hand would be to refrain from hesitation, don’t think about it, just act.
Sullivan, you’re shameless. After having being castigated for your outrageous whitey supremacist bullshit and seriously deviant take on the concept of invasion and being told to fuck off, here you are, with not a jot of acknowledgement as to the element of being, as it were, sent to the dunce’s corner. I’m guessing that’s your schtick, just bluff it out and hope no-one notices.
And here you are again, posting more garbage. Situation normal, in Sullyland.
Roswell, no problem, my comment was negative feedback only. It’s Bert’s choice whether or not he wants to mention those who appear to be driving genocide. I might write an article one day, who knows. As soon as the Labor-LNP juggernaut is dismantled, I’ll think about it.
B S, I haven’t read the Bible but have heard the New Testament has a lot of add-on material that might be fabricated. As for Jesus, I read he borne as Jew, but somehow came in contact with the teachings of Krishna. Jesus was impressed enough to adopt Krishna-consciousness which in time became known as Christ-consciousness.
In the meantime, Israel spurns the UN Security Council resolution.
At what point do we label Israel and its leadership as a rogue state as we have with North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Iraq and Libya.
Perhaps the earliest known anthropomorphic god (of the ‘civilized’ world), El (after whom possibly Isra-el was named), and her underlings Baal and the like, as part of a process of obeisance, required and promoted child sacrifice. At other various times and in different places in the world, practices such as the sacrifice of female virgins, and through to today, animals of various types.
Just a few examples of the utter garbage that comprises the notion of any god. They are simply convenient human constructs that facilitate the shirking of individual responsibility and relief from owning and managing the corruptibility within.
Of course, rather than wrangle inherent psychological binaries, the resignation to sloth and laziness in the rush to slake desire, sees instead the projection of charisma and adornment upon the manic and despotic. They then become the messengers of the invented god(s), with the band of cringing servile flunkies seeking out the common vulnerabilities and designing messages from (god) to manipulate the masses. Much like the politics of today.
The whole caboodle relies upon the forsaking of ideas and language of equilibrium and equity so that schemes of supremacy, divisive differentiation, otherness, competition and righteousness prevail. And as icing on the cake, rules that turn love and sex into a confusion of obsessions. A wonderful process of self-flagellation or imposed penalty until being at one with the supreme.
Such a simple recipe that, since moving from grunts and ululations, saw the development of language and sophistry justifying conquest by the letting of blood, dispossession, enslavement, theft, engorgement and the wanton accumulation of wealth.
Looking over shoulders and adding up scores, whilst beholden to the messengers of god, will invariably lead to lassitude and pursuit only to the convenience of the death cult.
That we can now bear witness to instantaneous images across the world, but for the desperate strains of the despots and accumulators, the old scheme is coming apart at the seams. Oh, for the fear and the angst, what shall be invented to replace it?
Contrary to what is claimed or felt by many of us, deep down there’s a potential monster in each of us that, under the just-right circumstances, can be unleashed; and maybe even more so when convinced that God is on our side.
But Christ practiced and preached the opposite of what enables the most horrible acts of human cruelty to occur on this planet. Sadly, sometimes those atrocious acts are allowed to remain a buried secret.
Meantime, institutional Christianity/Christians [i.e. those most resistant to Christ’s fundamental teachings of non-violence, compassion and non-wealth] seem to insist upon creating their Creator’s nature in their own fallible and often angry, vengeful image; for example, proclaiming at publicized protests that ‘God hates’ such-and-such group of people.
Often being the most vocal, they make very bad examples of Christ’s fundamental message, especially to the young and impressionable. This is why I openly critique those in public life who claim to be Christian yet behave nothing like Christ nor his basic teachings.
The self-described Catholic Joe Biden, his administration and too-many Democratic senators and congressional representatives want it both ways: to unconditionally heavily arm the Israeli state against Palestine AND to keep the Palestine-/human-rights-supporting voters active and onside.
But I doubt that Arabic/Palestinian/Muslim voters will collectively compromise and sell their souls by giving Biden a pass on his blatant bloodying hypocrisy towards the current mass slaughter of Palestinians by Israel.
U.S. Republicans, meanwhile, went into their ‘Christian’ mode by withholding their political support for helping literally starving Palestinian children. … Jesus must be spinning!
[Cont.] I watched a documentary in which Jesus’ nature and teachings were said to have left even John the Baptist, who believed in him as the savior, troubled by his apparently contradictory version of the Hebraic messiah, with which John had been raised.
Many institutional ‘Christians’ may find inconvenient, if not plainly annoying, trying to reconcile the conspicuous inconsistency in the fundamental nature of the New Testament’s Jesus with the wrathful, vengeful and even jealous nature of the Old Testament’s Creator.
The Biblical Jesus most profoundly washed his disciples’ feet, the act clearly revealing that he took corporeal form to serve. And that he, as a hopeful example of the humility of the divine, joined humankind in our miseries, joys and everything in between.
Perhaps most perplexing was the Biblical Jesus’ revolutionary teaching of non-violently offering the other cheek as the proper response to being physically assaulted by one’s enemy.
Jesus also most profoundly washed his disciples’ feet, the act clearly revealing that he took corporeal form to serve, which of course included saving. As such a hopeful example of the humility of the divine, Jesus joined humankind in our miseries, joys and everything in between.
Therefore, Jesus may have been viciously killed because he did not in the least behave in accordance to corrupted human conduct and expectation — and in particular because he was nowhere near to being the vengeful, wrathful and even bloodthirsty God.
Frank, I heard speculation that if Jesus came back today to teach he’d be shadow-banned and then de-platformed by YouTube, Twitter, FarceBook etc while being chased down the cobblestones by a pack of snapping ‘journalists’ from Propaganda-R-Us acting on behalf of the Ministry of Tru Facts which was ready to charge him for spreading misinformation.
Julian Assange, how is that traversity going?
Interesting comment, Pilock.