Family Values

From Karen Armstrong’s A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam:

To make such human, historical phenomena as Christian “Family Values,” “Islam,” or “the Holy Land” the focus of religious devotion is a new form of idolatry.  This type of belligerent righteousness has been a constant temptation to monotheists throughout the long history of God.  It must be rejected as inauthentic.  The God of Jews, Christians and Muslims got off to an unfortunate start, since the tribal deity Yahweh was murderously partial to his own people.  Latter-day crusaders who return to this primitive ethos are elevating the values of the tribe to an unacceptably high status and substituting man-made ideals for the transcendent reality which should challenge our prejudices.  They are also denying a crucial monotheistic theme.  Ever since the prophets of Israel reformed the old pagan cult of Yahweh, the God of monotheists has promoted the ideal of compassion.