Sunshine Cathedral Blog

“God put Abraham to the test. God said to Abraham, ‘Take your only child, Isaac whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice’… [As Abraham was about to kill Isaac], God’s angel called out to Abraham, ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy! Don’t hurt him in the least…’ and Abraham slaughtered a ram instead.” Genesis 22, abridged

This is one of the most disturbing stories in scripture. It has been used to call a homicidal father “faithful.” It has ignored the feelings of poor (and surely terrified) Isaac and it has traditionally not accounted for the anger and heartache this despicable act must have caused Isaac’s mother, Sarah. I have always assumed that when Abraham thought he heard God telling him to sacrifice Isaac he was in fact delusional, suffering from some sort of terrible mental illness, and luckily, just in time, he came to himself and spared his son (while still believing God would delight in the violent slaughter of an innocent animal). Isaac’s life was spared, but surely the relationships between Isaac and Abraham and Sarah and Abraham would be forever damaged.

I have also heard that one possibility for the writing of this story was to actually condemn the practice of human sacrifice. Some cultures did sacrifice children, and as Abraham thought his God wanted him to sacrifice what he loved most as other gods were said to require of the faithful, in the end God says, “No! That’s not what I want;” thus demonstrating that lethal violence is not a way to please the Divine.

Perhaps the most satisfying interpretation comes from Harold Kushner, who is his book, Conquering Fear: Living Boldly in an Uncertain World writes, “I now believe that it was a test, but not… a test of Abraham’s willingness to obey without questioning. As I now read the story, God speaks twice… once telling [Abraham] to take the boy’s life and a second time telling him to spare the child. The test is to see if Abraham will be able to distinguish the true voice of God from the inauthentic…. Will he be wise enough to know that the call to compassion is the authentic voice of God and the call to murder is a distortion?”

When Religion has called for us to be mean-spirited, exclusive, or to celebrate any act of violence, it has probably used God’s name in vain! When Religion has said that God was violent, required violence, or blessed violence, it must have been mistaken. Surely, as Rabbi Kushner writes, Religion should center on whom we are required to love, not whom we feel we are entitled to hate.

Christianity has for too long been a tradition that has celebrated and even worshiped violence in some of its stories, theologies, and imagery. As Progressive Christians, we may want to summon the courage to re-imagine, reinterpret, and retell the Christian message. Perhaps we can focus simply on Jesus’ Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.