Do Christians Still Sacrifice Their Children?: A Response to Rachel Held Evans
Someone posted Rachel Held Evan’s post on the sacrifice of Isaac in Gen.22, “I would Fail Abraham’s Test (and I bet you would too).” ( http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/fail-abraham-test ) In her usual winsome and engaging way, Evans asks the wrong questions and gives the wrong answers to the issues raised by this text and other texts in the Old Testament where God is involved in violence of some sort. Her main target is those who share the sentiment and view of the Bible as John Piper, who she quotes: “It’s right for God to slaughter women and children anytime he pleases . . . God is God.” Even though Evans acknowledges that the Ancient Near Eastern context “makes a bit more sense” of Gen.22, she does not draw on any of it to contest views like Piper’s. Instead she goes on to query whether any of us today would or should heed God’s call to sacrifice our children. She bookends her post with a similar comment: “Maybe the real te...