Established 1970

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.