Culture of Intolerance and Hate

When we turn on the news today we see death, murder, hatred, and intolerance. People are spewing out all kinds of venom in the name of religion, justification, and lies. One that struck me most recently was the video of one Rev. Steve Anderson from Tempe, Arizona. He speaks of hating and killing people. He speaks of praying to his god for violent deaths of those he hates.

Here’s the problem with that. While we are a nation that has freedom of religion, we are also a nature that is founded on separation of that freedom from the state so that the two should and would not influence each other. Our European ancestors fled many of their nations because of religious persecution and forced religious views. They wanted to create a place where people could live their lives, believe the way the wanted, and was not a theocracy. As a tax paying citizen, I expect that my freedom to live my life the way I choose without the oppression of another’s religious beliefs. However, there are people who seek to make this otherwise.

So as a student of world religions I would like to make note of a few things that Rev. Steve Anderson and his ilk should take know of. First, if you follow the Old Testament you are by definition a Jew not a Christian. According to the Christian mythology, Jesus was the fulfillment of the old covenant between the Jewish god Yahweh and the “Chosen”. “17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. 18For verily I say to you, Till heaven and earth shall pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19Whoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whoever shall do, and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Webster Bible Translantion, 2013)What does this mean? Well that is up for debate. But at the very least if it does NOT abolish the old laws then there are some serious issues with modern arguments that people such as Rev. Steve Anderson presents.

All of these merit death in the old Testament

Sexual acts

• Homosexual intercourse between men (Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13).
• Adultery (Leviticus 20:10-12, man and woman).
• Lying about virginity. Applies to girls who are still in their fathers' homes, who lie about their virginity, and are presented to their husband as a virgin. The accused is guilty until proved innocent. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21)
• The daughter of a priest practicing prostitution (death by fire — Leviticus 21:9).
• Rape of a virgin who is engaged. If she is not engaged you only have to marry her and give her father 50 shekels. No mention is made of the girl’s opinion, and no punishment is specified for raping a single non-virgin female. (Deuteronomy 22:25)
• Being the victim of rape, if one is an engaged female virgin and the rape occurs in a city. If it takes place in a field, the victim is spared because nobody would have heard her screams. (Deuteronomy 22:23-27)
• Men or women practicing bestiality (both person and animal die —Leviticus 20:15-16).^[1]
• Having sex with your father’s wife, as distinct from "your mother," as it was permissible at the time for men to have several wives (both die — Leviticus 20:20).
• Having sex with your daughter-in-law (Leviticus 20:30).
• Incest (Leviticus 20:17).
• Marrying a woman and her daughter. Mother, daughter, and husband are all burnt to death. (Leviticus 20:14)

Food and drink

• Consuming blood; blood in meat is not exempt (Genesis 9:4).
• Eating a cheeseburger. (or anything else that mixes meat and dairy — Exodus 23:19).
• Sacrificing anything with leaven (e.g. yeast) or honey (Leviticus 2:11)
• Eating fat (Leviticus 3:17).
• Eating pork (Leviticus 11:7-8).
• Eating a fellowship offering more than three days old (Leviticus 19:5-8).
• Eating aquatic creatures lacking fins or scales (Deuteronomy 14:9-10).
• Eating any meat not killed according to the kosher practice (Deuteronomy 12:21).

Idolatry

• Consulting a psychic or spiritualist (Leviticus 19:31).
• Being a psychic or spiritualist, punishable by death (Leviticus 20:27).

Daily life

• Performing any work on the sabbath (Exodus 20:10).
• Planting more than one kind of seed in a field (Leviticus 19:19).
• Wearing clothing woven of more than one kind of cloth (Leviticus 19:19).
• Cutting the hair on the sides of your head or clipping of the edges of your beard (Leviticus 19:27). This commandment is the reason why Orthodox Jews often sport sidelocks and big beards.
• Touching the dead carcass of a pig (Deuteronomy 14:8).
• Cross-dressing (Deuteronomy 22:5).

Religious laws

• Worshiping idols (Exodus 22:20, Leviticus 20:1-5, Deuteronomy 17:2-7).
• Blasphemy (Leviticus 24:14-16,23).
• Breaking the Sabbath (Exodus 31:14, Numbers 15:32-36).
• Practicing magic (Exodus 22:18), unless you're doing 'divine healing' on national television.
• Being a medium or spiritualist. (Stoning) (Leviticus 20:27).
• Trying to convert people to another religion. (stoning) (Deuteronomy 13:1-11, Deuteronomy 18:20).
• Apostasy - If most people in a town come to believe in a different god. (Kill everybody, including animals, and burn the town, and the people who do believe in that god.) (Deuteronomy 13:12-15)^[5]
• Giving one of your descendants to Molech. Probably refers to human sacrifice^[6], which is not now as commonly practised. (Leviticus 20:2)
• Non-priests going near the tabernacle when it is being moved. (Numbers 1:51)
• Being a false prophet. (Deuteronomy 13:5, Deuteronomy 18:20, Zechariah 13:2-3)

Parents and Children

• Striking your parents (Exodus 21:15).
• Cursing your parents (Exodus 21:17, Leviticus 20:9).
• Being a stubborn and rebellious son. And being a profligate and a drunkard. (stoning) (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)

Violent and legal crimes

• Murder. However if a slave is beaten to death the owner is “punished” — not necessarily killed. If the slave survives the beating then there is no punishment-unless the slave's tooth or eye is damaged (Exodus 21:26-27). This is part of a wide range of slavery laws in the Old and New Testament. (Genesis 9:6, Exodus 21:12, Numbers 35:16-21)
• Kidnapping and selling a man. (Exodus 21:16).
• Perjury (in certain cases) (Deuteronomy 19:15-21).

Deuteronomy 19:20 explicitly identifies that the purpose of this is deterrence. "The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing (malicious and false testimony by one man against another) be done among you." Presumably all the other death penalties are assumed to be for deterrence as well.

• Ignoring the verdict of a judge – (or a priest!) (Deuteronomy 17:8-13).
• Not penning up a known dangerous bull, if the bull subsequently kills a man or a woman. Both the animal and the reckless owner of the dangerous bull are to be put to death. (Exodus 21:29)

Things that don’t go anywhere else

• Living in a city that failed to surrender to the Israelites. (Kill all the men, make the women and children slaves.) (Deuteronomy 20:12-14)

Possible grounds for execution

The following carry the punishment of being "cut off from his people". Some people seem to feel that this is the same as the death penalty, although the ancient Israelites may simply have interpreted it as exile. Modern Jewish law typically interprets this as losing one's share in the afterlife, not a worldly death penalty.

• A male who is not circumcised. (Genesis 17:14)
• Eating leavened bread during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. (Exodus 12:15)
• Manufacturing anointing oil. (Exodus 30:33)
• Engaging in ritual animal sacrifices other than at the temple. (Leviticus 17:1-9)
• Sexual activity with a woman who is menstruating: (Leviticus 20:18)
• Consuming blood: This would presumably include eating black pudding or blood soup. It would presumably also include any blood accidentally consumed when an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish mohel sucks the blood from a newly circumcised baby penis. (Yes, they really do this.) Also see above. (Leviticus 17:10).
• Eating peace offerings while ritually unclean: (Leviticus 7:20)
• Waiting too long before consuming sacrifices: (Leviticus 19:5-8)
• Going to the temple in an unclean state: (Numbers 19:13)

What the Bible Says about Hate

1 John 4:20

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

1 John 3:15

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer [and murder deserves death according to the same logic that is being used], and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 

            So I say to you, think about what you wish to preach. Think about what you wish to send out into this world, for what you send out into this world WILL come back to you. If you don’t believe me just ask the Christians in Florida who wanted to force the state to allow them the right to pass out their religious materials. Now because of their desire to show their hate, to force their beliefs upon others they have opened a door for even those of the Church of Satan to be allowed access to present THEIR beliefs to the same children.

            I pray to the Kindred that those with hatred in their heart, who follow those teachers of hate, and those teaching such hate awaken. I pray to the Kindred they awaken to the poisonous venom that is not only destroying themselves but all that our nation has stood for these past 200 plus years.