The Old Testament is the worst “human rights” document ever developed for humankind.

A few weeks ago, Tom Short was on campus again and without personally knowing very many of the students, he began to slander and judge them by calling them names like “sinners” and “fornicators.”

At the beginning of last week, it was the Gideons handing out Bibles on the sidewalk in front of the Memorial Union and not in the free speech zone. Also, at the end of last week, a man displayed a large sign with the disarticulated and bloody remains of a fetus in front of the Memorial Union, and again, not in the free speech zone. These are Old Testament tactics.

Jesus was one of the world’s greatest human rights activists. He believed that long-lasting social reform would occur when love, compassion, kindness, and understanding were employed, instead of Old Testament tactics. Old Testament tactics allowed for an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 people to be murdered during a 400-year period during the Inquisition. Old Testament tactics allowed for the murder and enslavement of the Native Americans and the stealing of their lands in the New World.

Old Testament religious fanatics are trained to use Old Testament tactics to achieve their goals because the New Testament would not allow for it. Old Testament tactics have more shock-and-awe value than the New Testament, and the results are more immediate than waiting for love, compassion, kindness and understanding to achieve similar goals.

Jesus did not have anything to do with packaging the Old Testament with the New Testament; it was the Roman church bureaucracy in the Roman Empire, about 200 years after Jesus.

In fact, Jesus continuously debated and challenged the Old Testament, knowing that his people drastically needed a change. Spartacus was one of the earliest human rights activists, starting in Italy about 70 years earlier than Jesus. How long do we have to endure the cruelest portions of Roman rule? When will we finally see the historical evidence and say to ourselves that the Old Testament is the worst human rights document ever developed for humankind?

Clint Clark

Senior

Liberal Studies