A Past Experience

As I read Plotz's commentary, I can't help but agree with his overall feel for the Bible (thus far). He is a skeptic, but his take is not wrong. For example, if we examine Sodom and Gomorrah then we'll learn that God destroyed those cities and peoples after he said that he wouldn't. Whether it was 5 or 50 righteous men, the cities would be spared. Then there's Chapter 19, and the Lord flimsily sticks to his word. He'll spare the righteous if they leave Sodom and Gomorrah; some of the people may be saved, but the cities are on their last legs. Abraham's motivation for mercy was irrelevant. The Bible shows that God will choose what He wants for the endgame. The people in the Bible show some moral structure and understanding, but God must use extremity to make his point. This is where we can look back into Plotz's argument.

Plotz says of Genesis: Chapters 18&19, "how do you teach this in Sunday School? What is the moral lesson here?" This is one of my problems with Evangelical actions; sometimes the point being made or the story being told has a counterpart; a deficiency.

For example, I was a Bible storyteller and puppeteer for a week of Vacation Bible School this summer. We didn't cover the Sodom and Gomorrah story. Instead, one of our stories was the story of Elijah, the prophets of Baal, and the altar (found in 1 Kings: Chapter 17-19). Our audience consisted of some younger elementary schoolers. On the surface, the story is a good one to tell because Elijah proves to the prophets of Baal that they believed in the wrong God because Elijah's God puts fire to the drenched altar. The story shows the power of the "right" God. At VBS we were told to stop here, but there's more to the story and character of Elijah. If we continue on then we'll discover that Elijah may have an underdeveloped stance on morality although he believes in the "right" God. 1 Kings, Chapter 19, Verse 1 says, "And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword." According to my fellow VBS storytellers, once Elijah proved his point he brought all (allegedly around 400) the prophets of Baal down to the river and beheaded them. According to the Bible, God and his devout followers act in ways that are straight-up wicked.

What I find to be interesting is the fact that many Christians aren't presented with the whole story. I'm a born and raised Presbyterian, and I am one of those kids who hasn't been presented with all the facts. Only until recent have I read the raw material contained in the Bible.

Whether we're talking about Genesis, Kings, or whatever, God seems to have a pretty stone-set worldview. Plotz shows, through the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, that God can be wicked, and I've showed that his followers can be wicked, too.

God is a consistent decision maker, and commonly if one person or many people make the "wrong" decision then they are offed. From what I've read or learned, there's not a lot of "going back" or "I'm sorry" because those who are wrong are blasphemers, cannot be forgiven, and must pay the price. God can either be merciful or a masochist, but everything must be read and taken in context, right? Lastly, I'm not saying that all of God's actions are wicked, but, as a contemporary reader, should we analyze and account for all of God's decisions? If God makes any "wicked" decision then should we ding him for it? Say I'm a devout Christian; to me, should he be considered omnibenevolent? Should we draw any lines with God?