Is God a maniac? On Beliefnet, it’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Beliefnet.com features a column on the issue of placing the Ten Commandments in public buildings. Next to it is a poll question: Should the Ten Commandments be displayed in public buildings?

There’s a place to post comments, and I submitted one pointing out what the biblical God considers capital crimes and appropriate action toward those who stand in his way, and referring to such a God, I thought appropriately, as a homicidal maniac.

The next day my post had disappeared. Thinking this might be due to a technical glitch, I posted it again. Again it disappeared. An exchange of e-mails clarified why: The post was removed to spare the feelings of people who might be offended by use of the phrase “homicidal maniac” in relation to God. The following post was found to be acceptable:

“A more appropriate poll question: The author of the Ten Commandments prescribes the death penalty for murder, blasphemy, false evidence in capital cases, false prophecy, incest, adultery, homosexuality, insubordination to authorities, licentious behavior by a priest's daughter, deceiving one's husband about premarital chastity, raping an engaged woman, insulting one's parents, rebelling against parental authority, publicly profaning the Sabbath, fortune telling, and witchcraft, and also commands the extermination of entire offending peoples, including women and children, Do you believe these moral rules should be displayed in public buildings?”

Speaking of the Ten Commandments, I certainly wouldn’t deny they provide the foundation of U.S. law—after all, the Constitution does expressly forbid the worship of any god but Yahweh, and also enshrines that bedrock principle of American jurisprudence, the prohibition of graven images (except for the clause, ignored by the liberal Supreme Court, exempting the carving of the Ten Commandments).

Any student of history also knows the Greeks and Romans had no concept of law, and that, for example, unless God had enlightened us, natural reason would never have uncovered the desperate civil necessity of prosecuting men who spill their seed.