The Bible is not for children

Coming from a background of Chinese religion I have always come to admire the Bible as a great book of wisdom, righteousness and foundation for morality and truth. Many of the principles in Confucianism and Chinese Buddhism are morally congruent to the teachings of the Bible.In addition to those virtues, I and other PCC students are aware of the Bible containing many adult themes like murder, sodomy and rape.

These strange stories do perhaps have an esoteric meaning for those who have an intimate understanding of the Bible, but reading these stories at face value from an outsider's perspective can be perplexing.

As someone from an eastern tradition of principles similar to Christianity, it is puzzling that the most revered piece of literature includes such strange and brutal stories. The Bible, which is suppose to lay the moral groundwork for a society based on moral principles, is also a book that contains very violent, if not strange subject matter which should not be available to children.

One story comes from the older Catholic version of the Bible (Latin Vulgate) in the fourth book of Kings (2:23-24) about Elijah. In the Old Testament, the revered Elijah could raise the dead, bring down fire from the sky and could cruise to heaven in a chariot. He apparently could not cure his baldness. As the story goes, Elijah was taking a stroll to Bethel and encountered a gang of children who taunted him with names like "baldy." These children clearly angered Elijah to the point that he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Immediately after, two bears jumped out from the woods and mauled the 42 children to death.

While this story could be seen as a lesson for children to not make fun of bald people, it is a little bit extreme for the reasonable person. Sure don't make fun of bald people, but letting children be violently killed by bears is just too much.

In another story, God commands his people to remove their foreskins (Genesis 17:10). Those who did not do so were cursed.

In the modern world, God is not actively known to curse those who are not circumcised, but back then, God would annihilate those who did otherwise.

In the book of Exodus (4:24-26), God thinks Moses should die because his son's foreskin hasn't been removed. When God tries to kill Moses, his wife Zipporah steps in and chops off his son's foreskin and lets it fall to Moses' feet. "A bloody husband thou art!" screams Zipporah, still carrying both the child and knife. In the end, Moses is saved by his wife's heroic but strange actions.

Discussing foreskins to children and killing someone over it is definitely not appropriate for those in their youth.

While the Bible has a fascination for all things foreskin, here is a story full of love, romance and trading foreskins for a wife.

The lotharios of yesteryear like Casanova, Don Juan, and Bill Clinton are all worthy of praise. But before them was David. In the first book of Samuel (18:25-27), the young David is determined to marry Saul's daughter. David will do absolutely anything that Saul wants.

What does Saul, the ruler of the Kingdom of Israel want? Land? Women? Gold? Apparently he wants foreskins, one hundred of them. David is confused about the offer, but he still kills 200 men, pulls all of their trousers down, goes to work and brings back a satchel of foreskins. He brings double the amount and Saul has no other option but to lend his daughter in marriage.

Marriage and love might be acceptable content for children but killing people to retrieve their foreskins is definitely not.

Inside the Bible, there are some stories that are just so shocking that it is difficult to fathom what God's purpose was.

In the book of Judges (19:22-30), a man and his mistress roam the streets looking for shelter and end up finding a nice homeowner to let them stay.

During the night, a group of men show up and start banging at the door and insist to see the man to sodomize him. The homeowner doesn't want the man to be raped and asks them if they want his virgin daughter. The men refuse and instead take the man's mistress. They rape this woman all night until morning and then let her bleed to death.

One would think that things were over, but then the man cuts her up and sends her body parts to each of the 12 tribes of Israel.

It is ironic how social conservatives condemn Hollywood films for its infatuation with sex and violence, while this kind of content is in the very same book they use as a pillar to denounce these movies.

Finally, from a story that must have been important enough for God to mention it twice in the New Testament, Matthew (21:19) and Mark (11:13-14), Jesus tries to make a tree produce fruit.

One day Jesus is walking from Bethany and he has the munchies. He stumbles upon a fruit tree, but to his misfortune the tree bears no fruit. Jesus is irritated and orders the tree to produce some fruit. When the tree becomes indifferent, Jesus, in a strange fit of wrath, curses the fig tree to eternal damnation in front of his disciples.

This story is strange because it offers a glimpse of Jesus as spiteful and unlike the one we are so familiar with in the Gospels.

The Jesus we know is one that turns his cheek, not one that contributes to global warming.

All right, he is hungry, but don't kill the fig tree. It is a plant of peace.