Torture and Burning: Why is the Christian God Bloodthirsty?
Abstract
Is there any meaning in the Christian God being tortured to death on the cross? Is it meant to show to Christians what they should not do? Or is it meant to demonstrate what they should do?
Is there any meaning in the Christian God being tortured to death in all the brutality that Mel Gibson depicts in The Passion of the Christ? Some of us, as children, thought it was meant to show to Christians what they should not do. They said he was the God of love who urged everyone to love each other to cure the never ending bloody strife between people. His own cruel death showed exactly what he meant.
Why then do Christians not notice this simple message?
• They have committed worse atrocities than did their own God’s tormentors. •
Martha Brossier, a French peasant girl, in 1588 was possessed of a devil. A clever cleric, Bishop Miron of Angers, decided to try out a few scientific tests. He let it be known to the girl that she would be treated with holy water and incantations from the Holy Word. When, with a show of ostentation, he administered spring water and read from Virgil in the original Latin. The devil promptly sent her into a fit! When, however, holy water was administered to her unobserved with a wet hand, while the clergyman murmered a line of the bible in Latin, the girl made no response at all. The witch hunting zealots claimed it simply showed how devious the devil was.
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