Thou Shalt?
On Facebook this morning, a friend posted a link to an article called "How to Kill Goyim and Influence People: Israeli Rabbis Defend Book's Shocking Religious Defense of Killing Non-Jews," which you can read here. The article's contents inspired me to write this poem:
Thou Shalt?
Horror in the Torah
killing in the name
of life for G*d
despite a commandment
to the contrary
perhaps proving it
a holey book
like so many other
religions possess
*
Thou Shalt?
Horror in the Torah
killing in the name
of life for G*d
despite a commandment
to the contrary
perhaps proving it
a holey book
like so many other
religions possess
Posted by Jesus Crisis at 8/30/2010 8:33 AM 
Categories: Religion and Philosophy, Poetry by JC
Tags: Israel Jesus Crisis
Categories: Religion and Philosophy, Poetry by JC
Tags: Israel Jesus Crisis
I just revised it slightly, adding the stanza break and changing the position of the last line break.
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as stephen king pointed out, killing for peace (or religion) is like fucking for virginity.
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I mentioned this before since I heard it from my Buddhist teacher. He didn't mention Stephen King. But I might add that all religions have their extremists and Judaism isn't an exception. I'm reading "The Portable Atheist" by Chistopher Hitchens right now on my new Kindle WiFi 3G... I recommend both the new Kindle and this book. These readings are essential to an understanding of "gods" by our oh-so-human minds. God bless America and praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, are just two things that come into my mind today.
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The Rage Against the Machine song "Killing in the Name" comes to mind:
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another loverly t-shirt phrase was
"If you love someone, let them go - if they don't come back to you, hunt them down and kill them."
we are such a gentle people.
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"Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out"
But if God's doing the sorting, why don't we let him do the killing, too?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk41Gbjljfo
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Probably my favorite XTC song!
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I believe the Torah is a sacred text and that any killing in its name is actually against everything it stands for. It is my understanding that religions are often distorted in this way. Kind if like when the State kills in my name. I do not want the State to kill in my name.
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The Torah is actually a sacred text never meant to be read literally..
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I think they meant at least some of it literally when they wrote it - otherwise why would they include all those boring genealogies? But today, I appreciate it best when I take very little of it literally. Metaphorically, it's a marvel.
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