Genocide is commanded by God in Deuteronomy. It is God's will.
God NEVER commanded genocide as we understand the term.
Genocide is the absolute total extermination of a racial group. For instance, the United States once promoted genocide as a matter of official law and policy.
"
The only good Indian is a dead Indian." - US General Phillip Sheridan
Today we salute and admire the flag that was carried into battle against innocent Native Americans under which women and children were brutally murdered. Even as we proclaim ourselves guiltless of the innocent blood of millions we accuse others WHO DO THE SAME.
Adolf Hitler admired the United States policy of racial genocide and modeled the German legal mandate for it after our own.
The Bible gave reasons other than ethnicity for killing. Those reasons were religious in nature.
God did not want pagan influences to infect His people Israel. Most human societies kill because some group is racially different from their own. Religion doesn't enter into the equation. The Bible outlined a reason for the killing (which was the common practice of all nations at the time, btw), gave specific reasons as to how it was to be done (not for private gain, which again was the practice of all nations including the United States), and gave limits as to when it was to stop.
But self-righteous Americans conveniently forget that we are as guilty (perhaps more so) of genocide as any other nation on earth. To this day, we murder and lie and steal from others so as to promote our own hegemony throughout the planet. Its justified under the generalization of international trade supremacy, but its still murder and thievery and lies.
Is it right for Americans to do it as long as our flag waves over the bloody aftermath of our aggression? Is it appropriate for us to cast aspersions upon ancient Israel as told in the Bible as though we were without SIN - to compare modern hypocrisy against ancient religious zeal?
If it was indeed evil for them is it not evil for us as well? Why then do we proudly salute our flag and conveniently ignore the war crimes we commit under its stripes and stars? To accuse the Bible of hypocrisy is to identify it in ourselves.
But we are Americans and we can do no wrong...... all our lies prove it.
that's me, hollering from the choir loft...