God and the Power Cosmic

So, I was browsing deviantArt the other day, and stumbled across user Larbesta. I don't remember if this was one of his random images displayed on the first page, or if I found it browsing his collcetion, but either way, I came across this:

It's entitled City of God. Now, I don't know what god this is a city for, or where this city can be found. And, frankly, that's wholly irrelevant to my point.

I was reminded of the past, as I often am; in this case, a song we used to sing during my tenure at Parochial School (a 13 year tenure, mind you...) called...you guessed it, City of God, written by Dan Schutte (here's a lyrics link).

"The Lord of all kindness has called us to be a light for His people, to set their hearts free."

Things that piss me off about this (and not just this song, but this concept):  First off is the Ban. We learned about this is one of the plethora of religion classes, I'm thinking Old Testament, but it's hard to say. At any rate, and I can't find a good link on it right now, it was a law, or commandment, or order {read: something God told them to do at one point or another} to kill every living thing in a city of their enemies. It was during the time of Moses, or maybe after his death, but while the Israelites were wandering in the desert. And, when they came upon a city that was unfriendly to them (Caananites, if my memory serves me) they were to fulfill this "ban," because if the city were hostile to them, it meant that they were hostile to IHVH.

Second is the (in)famous tale of Sodom and Gomorrah. If you don't know it, it's worth a read sometime, but briefly, God got pissed at these two cities because they were Roman (and if you know this story, that's a joke). Destroyed them, sparing the "noble" man and his family from death (except his wife, who decided to turn back around and made quite a feast for deer as a result).

Third is the other story, of Jericho, where Joshua was battling the Amorites and asked God to stop the sun in the sky; if I could have one wish, it would be to stop the moon, so that this...ahem, excuse me, Knight's Tale kicked in there. Anyway, for whatever reason, Joshua's seiging the city of Jericho, marches around it, shouts and the walls come tumblin' down! Then they kill every living thing in the city and take all the precious metals for "God."

Mmkay, very nice. Now, personally, I like the Old Testament God better than the New Testament God, mainly because he's not a pussy. But, let's hold to the traditional Christian believe that it's the same god from one book to the other, and just stopped PMSing after Jesus came along. There's three (well, two specific and one general) examples of cities God has decided he doesn't much care for, and rids himself of, for the good of his people of course. Let's say, then, that we "build a city of God" like the song (which I'm sure's based on some Psalm; most of those are) tells us. The Lord of All Kindness wants us to build this city, metaphysically I'm sure; I doubt they're talking about an actual city.

But let's assume that everyone on Earth decides to get along, love one another, and worship Christ in exactly the same way. Sounds like the City of God's been built, right? Well, what happens if God decides that's not what He wants the city to be? Ragnarok, or Armageddon. But...Jesus' second coming is to rid the world of bad people! We're not bad people, we're doing what He said! Right...except you're doing what someone wrote down that God said, and now he's pissed at you for not listening to him. Sorry world.

The second half's much shorter; "[...]a light for His people, to set their hearts free." The last time a "light-bearer" or "morning star" decided to grace humanity with knowledge (hehe), he was either A) Sent into Hell, which is really just a state of separation from God (which, aren't -we- separate from God now? WhoOoOo...) or B) Chained to a rock and has an Eagle eat his insides every day, which grow back over night, and have the cycle repeat again.

I like Old Testament God (and Zeus; pretty much the same dude, 'cept for all the fucking) much better than New Testament God.

And, on a completely unrelated point:

That's Cindy Phillips, photo courtesy of her blog. Pic's a little old, but still...

Best thing to come from Canada since Terrance and Phillip.