You
cannot blame every text for some of the uses to which they
were put, but some of them certainly did lend themselves to
use by bigots and persecutors, especially when they were
combined with such texts as, "Thou shalt not suffer a
witch to live." (Exodus 22:18)
Out
of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained
strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest
still the enemy and avenger. Psalm 8:2.
On
the strength of this text, the testimony of children was used
to obtain convictions to charges of witchcraft.
Jesus
must have had problems with people's lack of response to his
preaching. One parable pictures a man who put on a feast but
found that people were reluctant to come. (Luke 14:16-24).
The feast-giver says,
Go
out into the highway and hedges, and compel them to come
in, that my house be filled. Luke 14:23.
This
was used to justify forced conversions.
Other
texts have been used to justify the splitting of families and
other violence.
Think
not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to
send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they
of his own household. Matthew 10:34-36. See also Luke
12:51-53.
All
manner of evil has been done in the name of protecting
children. If you want to whip up hysteria, few verses are
better suited to your purposes than this one:
But
whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe
in me, it were better for him that a millstone were
hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the
depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6. See also Mark 9:42, Luke
17:2.
Papal
power rests on this text. The power to bind has often been
taken very literally.
...I
will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:19.
It
is easier to mistreat and persecute unbelievers if you think
of them as ......filled
with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness,
malice, Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity,
they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent,
haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to
parents, foolish, faithfulness, heartless, ruthless.
Romans 1:29-30, Revised Standard Version.
The
following verse has often thwarted people's attempts to avoid
the literal meaning of some of the Bible's nastier texts: For
verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one
jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law,
till all be fulfilled. Matthew 5:18.