06.20
The Bible gives a categorical commandment that we honor our fathers. This commandment was so important to the Hebrews that they proscribed the death penalty for transgressing it. In Leviticus 20:9, we read: “For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.”
To be clear, it’s not wrong to honor your father (especially today, Father’s Day!). But I’m not so sure every father deserves our unconditional love, respect, and obedience. My father has certainly earned those things from me—a million times over. Other fathers, however, have not.
Steve Wells over at Dwindling In Unbelief has compiled a list of bad father figures in the Bible. You’ll have to check out his full list, but I just wanted to highlight a few examples:
Noah got stumbling drunk and passed out—naked—in his tent. His poor son Ham inadvertently discovered him in this condition. Realizing that Ham saw him naked, Noah curses Ham’s son Canaan and all the descendants thereof to be “servants of servants” (a rather disproportionate response).
Lot, the only “just and righteous man” in Sodom and Gomorrah, volunteered his daughters to be raped by a mob so as to spare his two male guests (angels). Later, his daughters would rape him and bear his children.
Abraham was willing to offer up his son Isaac as a human sacrifice, as you all know.
Jephthah killed and burned his daughter, whose only crime was to greet her father upon his return from battle.
And then of course you have Yahweh, the father figure in the Bible, who drowned millions of his children and (depending on your Christology) sent his “only begotten Son” on a suicide mission.
why do you capitalize the word “bible” and other religious words?
still kissing religion’s ass. fu
That us one of the pettiest and most ridiculous secularist posts I’ve ever seen. Basic capitalization rules have us capitalize the first word of a book title. The Bible, word of God or not, is a book.
I know Nietzsche argues that even our grammar lies in the shadow of (is dependent on) theism, but not capitalizing book titles takes this a bit too far.
Am I kissing Dawkin’s when I capitalize the titles of his books?
Bezbpznik, there must be a more productive way for you to channel your anti-theism.
The Bible isn’t a religious word. It’s a book. And you capitalize book titles.
For what it’s worth, I rarely capitalize “god.” Anthropologist David Eller, probably along the lines of Nietzsche’s argument (I don’t know), makes a good case that we should always say “the Christian concept of god” or “the god of the Bible” instead of “God.”
I think Bezboznik might just be anti-capitalization. He didn’t capitalize the beginning of his sentence or even his name, for that matter.
Jon,
Not capitalizing god is often practiced in academic works in theology and religious history even by theist writers. N. T. Wright for instance does it throughout his scholarly books. Even in his book “The New Testament and the People of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God” he uses god of the Jews and god of the early Christians instead of ‘God’. Only his popular books or pastoral books (he is an episcopal bishop) does he move to ‘God’.
Most certainly it should remain a religious group language feature. Otherwise cross cultural discussions should have imbedded respect by using ‘the Christian god’ or the ‘god of Muhammad’ etc. I try to accommodate this.
“The Bible” is a proper noun, and is therefore capitalized when written. The only ass being kissed here is the big, round ass of proper grammar.
Just yesterday, (on Father’s day) my dad, who is Mormon, was talking about how he’s reading the Old Testament again, and finds it fascinating and uplifting. I found this a disturbing comment, for all of the reasons you mention here, and more. The Old Testament is an homage to extreme barbarism and the worst excesses of patriarchy. I find it very sad that my dad, who is a very good father, thinks there’s anything laudable about the father-figure characters in the Old Testament, or that he tries to emulate them (or thinks he does).
It’s really hard for me to understand how people like my parents aren’t horrified by the Old Testament.
You might try to distinguish between fathers that posed as role models and those posed as examples in the text and as interpreted by tradition. Jephthah, for example, is not put forward as an example of a good father. Rather, he seems to be and example of rash behavior.
Using Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, etc who are ‘hero’ as poor father examples is a worthwhile critique, except that you also have to recognize that most traditions also recognize their human flaws just as you do.
More disturbing to me is the overused biblical viewpoint of ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’. This is a tragic parenting guideline.
@Vince
I can’t think of a single positive father figure. They’re all steeped in ridiculous ideas of patriarchy and heteronormativity and extreme violence. The Bible is fables of our barbaric past when murdering someone for picking up a stick or selling your daughter to her rapist was not only acceptable but highly moral. As far as modern morality or positive role models, the Bible is almost entire rubbish. It does make for a fascinating (if very inaccurate) read into past cultures. It reminds us of what we don’t want to be, and how far we have yet to go to leave that behind.
I’m not easily impressed. . . but that’s iemprsisng me!