Five Worst Bible Verses

I feel lucky to live in the United Kingdom, and although 58% of the country identified as Christian, religion does not get brought into politics very often. The only recent debate in which religion featured predominantly was the same-sex marriage debate. The same cannot be said of the United States in which Christianity features heavily in every debate. Religion should be a private affair, between you and your God, not with the rest of the country. As a irreligious person this might really anger you, so here are five bible verses that contradict the idea that the God of the bible is a loving God.

1.       God kills 42 children: 2:23-24

"Elisha left Jericho to go to Bethel, and on the way some boys came out of the town and made fun of him. "Get out of here, baldy!" they shouted. Elisha turned around, glared at them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore 42 of the boys to pieces."

That’s right, God killed 42 children just because they called his prophet bald.

2.       God condones slavery: 1 Timothy 6:1-2

“Those who are not slaves must consider their masters worthy of all respect, so that no one will speak evil of the name of God and of our teaching. Slaves belonging to Christian masters must not despise them, for they are their brothers and sisters. Instead they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their work are believers whom they love.”

Perhaps God would have been on the side of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, because apparently he’s perfectly fine with slavery.

3.       God on rape: Deuteronomy 22:28-29

“Suppose a man is caught raping a young woman who is not engaged. He is to pay her father the ‘bride price’ of fifty pieces of silver, and she is to become his wife, because he forced her to have intercourse with him. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.”

This really gives you an insight into how women were once treated. They are the property of their father until they get married. Basically, according to this bible verse. If you have 50 silver pieces, you can rape any woman who is not married or engaged, you just have to marry her afterwards. Poor you. I tried to find out how much 50 silver pieces is in today’s money but ‘piece’ is a rather undefined amount and silver is significantly less valuable today than several millennia ago.

4.       Killing innocent babies: Psalms 137:8-9

“Babylon, you will be destroyed. Happy are those who pay you back for what you have done to us – who take your babies and smash them against a rock.”

Apparently murdering babies is cool with God. At this stage I’m not too sure if I’m reading the word of God or the word of Joffrey Baratheon.

5.       Human sacrifices: Judges 11:30-32

“Jephithah promised the Lord: If you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will burn as an offering the first person that comes out of my house to meet me when I come back from victory. I will offer that person as a sacrifice.”

If you read the rest of the verse he ends up sacrificing his daughter, at no point does God intervene and stop it. But it was all OK as his daughter was fine with it, the only thing she was upset about was that she would die a virgin.

In my opinion you have the right to follow any religion: even if I feel that the religion is full of hate and a poor source for ‘moral’ behaviour. That’s your choice. But you don’t get to try and enforce your religion on the rest of society.

When all Christians stop trying to force their religion on other people, I will stop pointing out the parts of the Bible that are really nasty.  

If you want to find even more bible verses that should be condemned, visit www.evilbible.com

Note: The bible I used for these quotes is the Good News Bible, published by “The Bible Societies/Collins” which is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers. I used the 2004 version.

The People's Pope

The Catholic Church changed on the 19^th of March 2013. This was the day that Cardinal Bergoglio was formally inaugurated as Pope Francis I.

His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, has staked out a very conservative position on many political issues. At one point the Pontiff had said that homosexuality was a greater threat to humanity than global warming! He also presided over a Church torn apart by sex abuse scandals all across the globe. The revelations included Priests in Ireland, the USA and Germany, where Benedict was from. It was not just the abuse of young children that shocked and angered the world, it was also the church’s reaction to it. The church consistently denied the allegations whilst concealing the truth. When the church found out that a Priest was abusing children, they did not hand them over to the police or even de-robe them. They simply moved the Priest to a different parish where they continued to abuse. Benedict was also controversial due to his involvement in World War Two. He had been a member of the Hitler Young and even flew fighter planes for Nazi Germany. So by the time Benedict resigned as Pope, the church’s reputation was in tatters.

Then along came Pope Francis. Francis was always going to be a historic Pope, he was the first non-European Pope since Gregory III of Syria died in 741 and the first Pope from the Americas.  Yet it is not the facts surrounding where he is from that make him historic, it is how he has acted and behaved since. Although still opposed to gay rights and abortion, Francis has tried to relax how fervent the Church is on these issues. When asked what his opinion was on gay people he said; “who am I to judge?” This is something his predecessor would never have said. His action on poverty is one on which he hopes to base his papacy on. In a Vatican document released earlier this week he chastised modern capitalism for its relentless pursuit of profit at the expense of the poor. He even went as far as calling it a “new tyranny”. He then went on to talk about how the Church should act saying that he would prefer a Church that was “bruised, hurting and dirty because it had been out on the streets” rather than one that is “unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.”

Furthermore last month Francis suspended the Bishop of Limburg, dubbed the Bishop of bling, for spending €31 million (£26 million/$42 million) renovating his residence. Instead Francis has promised to turn the home into a soup kitchen and shelter for the homeless.

Overall this Pope is a lot more popular than Benedict ever was, particularly with those on the left. Hopefully he will put words into action and help the millions of people across the globe who are stuck in the trap of poverty.

Christianity in the UK

The UK has a very complex connexion to religion. Our head of state is the head of the Church of England; England also has an established church (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not).

Despite the position of the Queen, religious affiliation does not matter in politics. A person can get elected whether they’re Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish or atheist or anything else. This differs greatly to the US where religion is extremely important. This kind of secularism that we have is the right kind, where religious affiliation does not matter and the church gets no say in government (the five bishops in the House of Lords don’t have any real power). Yet there is a dangerous precedent being set by cases of ordinary people. People have been asked to remove crosses or other signs of religion from their bodies at work, this is not right. I believe firmly in both religious tolerance and religious freedom, I believe that people have the right to be proud of their religion and show their religion in public but do not have the right to harass people who are not of their religion. Wearing a cross to work is perfectly fine, on the other hand wearing a T-shirt saying “God is better than Allah” is totally unacceptable.

We have to find the right balance between religion and secularism in this country, the UK has a strong connexion to religion and we should not force religion out altogether. 

Rowan Williams, the Arch Bishop of Caterbury,
who today completed his final Easter Sermon as
Archbishop