Monday, October 15, 2012

Leviticus 20, 21


Looks like God has got himself a pretty strong frenemy in an ancient God named Molech. I can only assume that the two of them—or should it be “Them”?—went to God School together and Molech beat the Lord out for the last spot on the student council. God has been bitter ever since.

Molech has been mentioned previously as a basic stand-in for idolatry, but here God specifically warns Moses against anyone sacrificing their children to this old god.

"But don't you remember when you tested Abraham's faith by commanding him to sacrifice his son to you?" Moses asks the Lord.

God scratches pulls on his beard and quickly changes the subject to the punishment those who sacrifice a child to Molech can expect. "The people of the land shall stone him [to death] with stones," God says, a method every rabid mob agrees is the best way to stone someone to death.

As has been demonstrated many times before, the bodyless spirit of the sky who only Moses can hear even when other people are around does not want the Israelites believing in any old fairy tale. To that end, anyone who communes with the spirits of the dead or seeks from them a divination, or who follows wizards, will be banished. This is when all the Catholic Harry Potter fans slink away to light candles to Saint Francis so they can find their car keys.

God then answers a question no one has asked: what crimes other than killing a child for Molech are punishable by death? As you can guess, it’s a list composed of things we’ve heard before:

  • Adultery with another man's wife
  • Having sex with his father's wife
  • Screwing your daughter in law
  • Homosexuality
  • Marrying a woman and her mother
  • Fucking animals (for some reason, a woman who fucks an animal is specifically mentioned)
It's important to note that everyone involved in these acts should be put to death--including the animals. I guess that’s fair, considering how baboons, with their enormous bright red swollen asses, are basically giant cock teases. They deserve to be killed.

God then reiterates again--yes, that's redundant, but so is God's countless reiterations--that the Israelites must keep all of His previously mentioned-like-a-million-times-already edicts about proper sexual conduct--like no having sex with a woman who's on her period--and keeping kosher. With all of His nagging, it’s clear that God thinks the Israelites are sullen teenage girls.  

From sex God moves to death, specifically, who can touch a dead body. Answer: the only dead bodies you can touch are those of your closest relatives. Quite the bummer if you're a mortician, but I'm sure God has his reasons for hating capitalism.

Priests, God reminds us, must be pure. That's why they can only marry virgins and never promiscuous, divorced, or widowed women. And if their daughters are promiscuous the girls should be burned at the stake, which can all agree is completely fair.

God also dictates an ADA-flouting list of excluding criteria for applicants to the priesthood. So if you’re blind, lame, or disfigured; have a broken hand or foot, conjunctivitis, scabs, scurvy, or "broken stones (aka crushed testicles); or a hunchback or dwarf, you are shit out of luck. Basically, God wants only Brad Pitt to be a priest.

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