The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American

by Andrew L. Seidel

Genesis 6:7, 6:13, 6:17; 7:4, 7:21–23—God kills everything and everyone except Noah, Noah’s family, and a pair of each animal because he regrets making humans. Genesis 22:2–12—God commands a father to kill his son as a test. Neither has done anything wrong; god just wants to make sure Abraham is so scared of him that he will kill Isaac, his child. Genesis 34:25—Jacob’s sons “took their swords and came against the city unawares, and killed all the males.” To avenge the rape of their sister they kill the rapists—and every other male. Exodus 11:4–6; 11:29–30—God kills firstborn children unless there is lamb’s blood on the family’s doorframe. Morality, innocence, and age are irrelevant. Exodus 20:5, 34:7, Numbers 14:18, Deuteronomy. 5:9—God promises to punish children for their parents’ crimes, to the third and fourth generation, in each verse. Exodus 22:20—If you sacrifice to another god you shall be devoted to destruction. This entails eradicating the offender’s family, according to Levitcus 27:28–29. Exodus 23:23—Six races of people are wiped out because they happen to live in Canaan, a land that god promised to the Israelites. “When my angel goes in front of you, and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out.” Levitcus 26:29—“You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.” Making guilty parents cannibalize their innocent children and killing the innocen...