Of course He is.

 Of course He is. 

from the introduction to Gregorius Gruntman’s commentary on Judges (in the Incoherent series, published by Rantrage Press, forthcoming 2019, p. ix, still in preparation) —

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Then, inevitably, the people of Israel did evil in the Lord’s sight. They forgot the Lord and went running after the Baals and the Asheroth, and the Lord grew angry and sold them into the hands of their enemies because of the evil they were doing. Their enemies oppressed them sorely. Until, when they could take no more of it, they cried out piteously. And the Lord pulled from among them a deliverer. The Spirit entered him, and he killed the bad king. Then the people could rise up and kill all the bad king’s armies, 10,000 men, all great fighters, because the Lord of hosts was with them. And the land about had rest for forty years, until the deliverer died, and the people of Israel forgot the Lord and again did evil.  And so forth.

The book of Judges is a test case. If we like our gods to be jealous, unrelentingly righteous, angry much of the time - with good reason - demanding, monogamous to the nth (and none of the phony-baloney “serial monogamy” stuff: That’s a contradiction in terms. Call it duogamy or triogamy or by its right name, serial polygamy, but “serial monogamy”? - pbbffftt*) - if we like our gods to be unbending, then we’ll like Judges.

     But if we like a god that gives the benefit of the doubt, that loves us warts and all - because we are, after all, good people for the most part, at least we try to be - a god that waffles a bit for our sake, then forget it. Skip over Judges, and 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings and . . . ; skip to . . . well, maybe the gospel of Mark, but only with the following verses omitted: 1:14a, 43-45; 2:6-10, 16-17a, 18-22, 28; 3:2, 4-5a, 19b, 20-35; 4:10-29, 34, 40-41; 5:13b, 17-20, 35-37, 40a, 43a; 6:3-6a, 10-11, 14-29, 52; 7:1-23, 36; 8:11-21, 30-38; 9:1, 6b, 9b-13, 14b, 15c, 18b-19, 28-29, 31-32, 33b-37, 41-50; 10:1-12, 13b-14a, 14c, 22-23, 24-31, 32b, 33-45; 11:13-21, 27-33; 12:2-9, 12-13, 15b and d; 12:18b, 24b, 27c; 12:34b - 15:44; 16:8, 10b-11, 13b-20.**

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 * Click here.

** The affable Sw­ēdëistic version of the Gospel that omits those verses among others; “Mark’s Good News” [RSV], may be found here. Note: Gregorius Gruntman grew up in the Sw­ēdëistic Episcopalian tradition. His mother was suffragan bishop of the Synod of Oregon. He is the twin brother of Glorianna Gruntman.

10.27.18