On Tuesday in this space I wrote about a young woman in Saudi Arabia who has just been sentenced to over 180 lashes for meeting a man on a beach in the dark of night and daring to have sex with him.
The situation is more aggravated than that, however. Let me begin today's entry by re-printing here what I wrote on Tuesday. If you already read that entry, skip past it here...
By now you have all heard about it. A 19-year-old woman in Saudi Arabia was gang-raped by a group of seven men who attacked both her and the man she was with -- and the woman was sentenced to 90 lashes for meeting with the man! When the woman appealed her sentence, a Saudi court more than doubled it.
No one inside or outside the Saudi Arabian legal justice system disputes the fact that the woman had been brutally attacked. But after international outrage, the Saudi government over the weekend sought to explain why the woman was sentenced to over 180 lashes.
(It should be noted here that, after the appeal, the men who attacked her also had their sentences increased, from the initial sentence of 10 months to five years, to two to nine years in prison, by the Qatif General Court.)
The explanation for the severe lashing sentence given to the woman? The Saudi Arabian government said Saturday that the woman had an "illegitimate relationship" with a man who was not her husband, and that both "exposed themselves to this heinous crime."
In Saudi Arabia, it should be explained, people are subject to pure Sharia rulings -- strict Islamic law. The Sharia is the official legal interpretation and application of the Qur'an. In other words, it is the legal pronouncement of What God Wants.
What God Wants in this case is for a 19-year-old woman to receive more than 180 lashes because she fell in love with a man, allegedly went with him to a beach after dark, where, according to the Saudi government statement, the group of attackers "saw her in a compromising situation, her clothes on the ground. The men at this point assaulted her and the man with her."
The Saudi statement went on to say that the woman knew that being alone with a man who wasn't her husband was illegal, "and therefore she violated the covenant of marriage." The statement did not say, however, that the multiple brutal rape took place in March 2006, when the young lady was 18 and that at the time the woman was engaged -- not married. Apparently this circumstance makes no difference to God, or to the Saudi court.
I am so sickened when I hear of any situation or event that involves violence, one human being upon another...but I find it especially repugnant when that violence is perpetrated upon a person based on the idea of someone in authority about What God Wants.
Does God -- as interpreted by Sharia law -- really want this 19-year-old woman to suffer over 180 lashes because she was brutally attacked and gang raped, allegedly while making love to a man on the beach? What kind of God wants that???? Does God say 'No!' to an 18-year-old girl who simply fell in love -- or lust?
To make matters worse here, the young woman claims that she was forced to meet privately with the man. There are allegations that she simply wanted to retrieve some photographs from him since she was now engaged -- and that he forced her to meet with him in order to get them back, leading to the incident on the beach.
However the two happened to be there, whatever bad judgment may have been used (if it was 'bad judgment' at all), is it really our thought that the decisions made here are not What God Wants? What kind of a God spews anger and retribution in the form of 180 lashes upon an 18-year-old girl who is accused of doing nothing more than take off her clothes and make love with someone?
(And while we are on the subject, what does the Sharia say about What God Wants with regard to an 18-year-old MAN who does the same thing???)
And while we are on the subject of God's desires...what kind of God wants the State of Texas to kill more people intentionally through the death penalty than the rest of the United States combined?
What is going on here? What kind of a God do we think we have? Even presuming that an unmarried 18-year-old woman deserves punishment for making love to a man on the beach in the middle of the night -- would not suffering a brutal multiple rape be considered punishment enough? Could not the Saudi court see past its strict interpretation of Shari law and arrive at a place of mercy or compassion in this case?
It is small wonder that people in many Western nations are leery, to say the least, about Islam and Islamic law and some Islamic countries and radical Islamic terrorists who want the whole world to live under Islamic law. This is the law they want the world to be ruled by?
And what about fundamentalist Christians who support the death penalty based on their understanding that this is What God Wants? Does God really want us to purposefully kill people as a means of stopping people from purposefully killing people? Is this how we deter people from a certain behavior? By exhibiting the behavior ourselves?
What gives here? What is wrong?
I wrote that on Tuesday, and then I promised some ideas about this today. So here are my thoughts on the matter. I think that many people have no understanding at all of Who God Is and of What God Wants. I think that many people have...
...given up their right to think about these things by bowing to what others think about these things -- and that those others to whom they bow are thinking about things based on what still others think about things...or thought about things over a thousand years ago.
Today's religions are nothing more than compilations of what some group of people (always men, incidentally) said hundreds of years ago about What God Wants. What religion desperately needs is an Update. We need Religion 2.0. And we need it now.
As long as we believe in, and insist on preaching about, a God of anger and retribution, we will continue to make room for people such as the Rev. Fred Phelps, who as pastor of the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an independent Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, has been known for preaching with slogans and banners containing phrases such as "Thank God for 9/11", "God hates fags," "AIDS cures fags," and "Fags die, God laughs (or mocks)," and who claims that God will punish homosexuals. He outraged thousands in America by showing up at the funerals of gay soldiers killed in the line of duty and picketing the services at burial sites with such signs and rhetoric.
Phelps spread these ugly ideas purporting to be a Christian minister.
Does God really hate gays? Does God hate anyone? Is God even capable of hate? Who and what IS "God," anyway?
These are questions that no one wants to ask or answer. At least, no one in places of religious authority. Yet slowly but surely the people of the earth themselves are answering them. I invite your answers, below...
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Good Morning Neale:
Does God really hate gays? If the religions of the day have had a hard time tolerating each other, then some religious groups may be teaching from a level [to a degree] of hatred.
“I’m urging all religions to at least tolerate talking with each other, even though it’s hard to speak without getting angry because they feel that some beliefs are more hindering than others. But I think one of the saving things of the world would be getting people to be willing to talk to each other, even though they think they are representing the devil incarnate. When people sing together in community, there is a spirit that takes over“. [Pete Seeger]
The gentleman [above] has a way, this non-denominational website [beliefnet] and you too, have some very interesting and thought provoking materials on the subject.
But also, I wanted to pass along a Christmas Story:
It was the day after Christmas at a church in a major city. The priest of the church was looking over the crèche when he noticed that the baby Jesus was missing from among the figures. He hurried outside and saw a little boy with a red wagon, and in the wagon was the figure of the little infant Jesus. So he walked up to the boy and said, "Well, where did you get your passenger, my tiny friend?" The little boy replied, "I got Him at church." "And why did you take Him?" The boy explained, "Well, about a week before Christmas I prayed to the little Lord Jesus and I told Him if He would bring me a red wagon for Christmas I would give Him a ride around the block in it."
This is a light, whimsical and heart warming story, its true. But all to often, as maturing adults we continue to parade around with our own red wagon filled with all sorts of idols and images. It only becomes hateful and violent when we try to inflict and manipulate others to our way of thinking, our pursuits and our creeds. I know this to be true because I have recently, been slandered and defamed by a religious establishment.
Good Morning
God is a God of love. He does not hate any of us but he does not always like the decisions we make. That is what the 10 commandments are about. They are a guideline for spiritual living.
God can hate in all 3 religions only difference is that judaism practice some of its laws discretlt, christianity banned it, while Islam still practices most of it PUBLICALY.
I am a social worker and I work with teens primarily. When a student begins to talk about how God would send them or someone else to hell, I ask them who they love most in the world. Almost everyone has one someone that they love deeply. Then I ask, "could that person ever do anything bad enough that you would want to send them to a permanent place of extreme discomfort where you would never see them again?" Ninety nine percent of the time they say no. Then I say, "so, you think you have more forgiveness in you than God?" It usually helps them to see how incredibly arrogant it is to think that God is such a vengeful, human character that he would hate people and banish them to hell.
God hates sin, and disobedience. This is what makes us sinners. God is merciful to us here on earth but he puts us to the test to see if we truly love him. Merciful I mean he will let us get away with stuff until the fearful expectation of judgement. To say he will not throw is us in hell for disobedience is saying you do not know the words of God or call him a lyer. You have to repent like it or not he created us and we have no power to change what he says he will do if you do not repent. Yes God loves everybody he gave his only begotten son for you, would you give your child for a thief, murderer, or child molester, and people who would just not care or listen, this is the true love of God. Because Jesus died for you while you were still a sinner.
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