Oy.

How Christian fundamentalists plan to teach genocide to schoolchildren

The headline sounds hyperbolic, and coming from “The Guardian,” it’s certainly prudent to be skeptical. However, if the story is even close to accurate… yup, the headline fits. The “Child Evangelism Fellowship” is using the story of God commanding King Saul to exterminate the Amalekites (Not just all the men. All their wives, and all their children, and all their sheep, and all their cattle, and all their cats and dogs. All of them. All of them gone for good.) to drive home the importance of unthinking, immediate obedience to Authority, no matter how vile or horrific or just plain *stupid* the orders.

“King Saul should have been willing to seek God for strength to obey completely,” the lesson plan on the Amalekites reads, and in three separate places it instructs teachers, “Have children shout ‘God will help you obey!'”

Gah.

I always thought the story would have been better if, when God told Saul to slaughter everyone, Saul thought for a second and said, “You know what… no. Just… no.” Then God could have smiled upon Saul and patted him on the head and said how proud he was that he was beginning to grow up and *think,* rather than just being a malevolent tool.

But hey, that’s just me.