bible, quranOver and over I hear about how the Qur’an teaches people to kill infidels; my rebuttal is that the Bible isn’t exactly unicorns and rainbows. What passages in the bible are just as bad as ones from the Qu’ran, referring to killing infidels, etc?
Specifically I am looking for verses from the New Testament (since, you know, the Old Testament is old and all).
I’m going to pre-respond to a couple answers that I expect will come up.
Jesus said, “I come to you with a sword” Sounds bad taken out of context, but there is no support for this being a threat to use a sword violently. It is a statement about how new ideas that challenge dogma tend to split communities.
Jesus said, “Cast him into the outer darkness” in the parable of the talents. Only if you interpret the master in the parable as being Jesus. I prefer Gustav Guiterrez’s Liberation Theology interpretation which interprets the master more literally and the third slave as the followers of Jesus, speaking out against tyranny.
Many references to “hell” can be interpreted as “Gehenna”, an actual place in Jerusalem where there was a lot of garbage and uncontrolled fires. So they are warnings that you need to get your life in order or you will end up living there.
Luke 10:11 talks about going out and teaching the gospel, and if they don’t listen, “wipe the dust off your feet”. I think you have to be overly sensitive to compare this to “flipping them off” as some have. It is more a statement of shaking it off and moving on.
Some passages that seem pretty hateful:
Jesus talks about separating the wheat from the chaff and throwing it into the fire.
Matthew 25 has some of the clearest statements on what it takes to be a good Christian, nice things like feed the hungry and visit the sick, then it ends with; if you don’t do those things you will be punished for eternity. (As Bill Hicks said, “thank you God for all those options”)
There is strong evidence that Jesus believed that the world was coming to an end in his lifetime and there would be a judgment, a separating of good and bad souls. It could be considered hateful or as a warning for how he thought you could avoid the punishment.
Paul listed various people and behaviors that should be shunned and expunged from the community, such as the arsenokoitai, a greek word that might mean homosexual. Timothy 1:9-10 as an example. He also wasn’t too keen on women speaking in church, but he seemed to be okay with them teaching, so it is hard to say if he “hated” women. 1st Corinthians 14:34-35
Revelations is full of armies killing the wicked, but it is too convoluted to know what is really being talked about it.
Here’s a pretty good list, and be sure to read the comments for some pretty good responses to it.
Here you go: http://www.nobeliefs.com/DarkBible/DarkBibleContents.htm
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