If Abraham bargained for the lives of the wicked Sodomites, whom we can all agree had it coming…

Finally, someone on BCC comes out unequivocally against sodomites!

The guest was Anne Provost who looked at God from the perspective of a drowned child during Noah’s flood.

From memory, I was particular impressed with what Provoost had to say about responsibility, faith, and transcendence.

To Provoost, it is important that we acknowlege that God is within us. That way we have to take responsibility for our faith. If we see God as an external authority, on the other hand, then faith suspends our conscience too often.

That reverberated with me. From my mission, I know that I was willing to do things because people who had “authority” demanded them in the name of God. I never would have done them if I had to take responsibility for them.

A good example was pretending to do a survey during street contacting. There are other things that I refused to do, thank heavens, such as exploiting refugees for number games.

In the end, I have concluded that we are responsible for our lives. I have to determine the difference between right and wrong. I have to pay my bills, feed my children, and respect my friends. Whatever leaders may say, it’s no excuse when I hurt others or myself.

We might have overcome racism, for example, a lot faster in the Mormon experience if we had not been pretending that it was the will of God rather than the prejudice of mortals (see Prince’s McKay biography).

Anyways, there might be transcript of Provoost’s interview on the Faith and Reason website soon.

DavidH,
That is an interesting take (particularly since we know that there is long tradition of human sacrifice in Canaanite culture). Thank you for sharing it. I can understand it as a theological reason for including the story, but I agree that it doesn’t really help us understand Abraham in this case.

Some of you know how that has turned out.

I like Everett Fox’s translation and notes.

Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac showed that the absence of human sacrifice in Yahweh worship was not because Yahweh’s worshipers were “chicken” or “less willing to sacrifice” than the worshipers of other gods. It was because Yahweh did not wish His worshipers to do so, and even sent an angel to underscore that point and put a stop to the attempt.

Of course, this lesson could be derived from the story whether the attempted sacrific was at Abraham’s instigation or whether it was at God’s, as a test/demonstration to other peoples of the commitment of His followers.