Coach Dave on Muslims

I find that fundamentalist Christians have a tendency to overlook large stretches of the Old Testament and Coach Dave is no exception. In a blog entry titled "What if the Pilgrims Had Been Muslims?" he credits the Bible for the American belief that murder is wrong. Speaking to a group of high school students he asks them "Why do we American's think murder is wrong, yet suicide bombers think they will be honored in heaven for having murdered innocent people?" The answer according to Coach Dave is that we follow the Bible while the Muslims follow the Koran.

Of course, Coach Dave ignores the fact that the Bible is full of instances where Jehovah ordered the slaughter of groups of people who displeased him, every man woman and child. No doubt Coach Dave believes that all those people deserved God's wrath. Nevertheless, a fundamentalist view of the Bible plainly supports the principle that God may periodically find it necessary to order his followers to slaughter large groups of people (including noncombatants) and that those followers better jolly well do so if they want to stay on God's good side. The fact that Allah's followers might feel obligated to carry out similar orders certainly is not precluded by the teachings of the Old Testament.

Am I Raping Coach Dave's Children?

I have thought about starting this blog for awhile, but I was finally spurred to action by an article by Dave Daubenmire entitled "I'll Have to Pray on It" that was cited by Culture Campaign. Dave is a former high school football coach in Ohio who now coaches God's team through Pass the Salt Ministries.

It seems that several parents in his community had shared their concerns about what was being taught in their schools with Coach Dave. Coach Dave recommended that they rally all like-minded citizens to descend upon the next school board meeting. "We will demand that the homosexual agenda be removed from our schools, that comprehensive sex-education be aborted, that abstinence education be the ONLY thing taught, and that every student be taught creationism as the origin of the species." (emphasis in original). When one of the parents demurred that he would have to "pray about it," Coach Dave was outraged by his timidity. "IF SOMEONE WAS BREAKING INTO YOUR HOUSE TO RAPE YOUR DAUGHTER WOULD YOU HAVE TO PRAY ABOUT YOUR RESPONSE?" (emphasis added)

WOW! Apparently Coach Dave thinks I am the equivalent of a child rapist because I don't see homosexuals as dastardly threats to our society, I think that children should be given accurate and complete information about sex and sexuality, and I think that objective science should be taught in our classrooms rather than mythology. Is this Culture Campaign's idea of culture?

While I am unalterably opposed to daughter raping (or any other raping for that matter), I would point out to Coach Dave that the Bible's position on the subject is far from unambiguous. Recall righteous Lot's response when the men of Sodom and Gomorrah threatened his guests: "Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes." Genesis 19:8. Nowhere does the Bible criticize this offer. Thus, a fundamentalist view of the Bible suggests that that there are certain circumstances in which allowing one's daughters to be raped is a moral and ethical choice.