Today is a day of cold and flurries, very much a mid-winter sort of day. Our snow drought continues, with each promising storm going elsewhere.

I’m still reading Lauret Edith Savoy’s Traces, while Jennie reads a book of Jewish history. In the background is the “militant occupation” in Oregon. Oddly, there is a good deal of overlap among the three.

Both books explore Manifest Destiny, the special relationship between a country or people, and the Creator, a relationship that encourages the chosen people to subjugate, displace, enslave, or destroy other peoples in repeated acts of nation building.

Pre-Rabinic Jewish history is rife with genocidal acts against neighboring states and tribes, territorial expansion carried out in the name of nation building, and largely endorsed, if not demanded, by God. Campaigns of ruthless territorial were common, as was the practice of enslaving the survivors. There was also a rich prophetic tradition, largely ignored, that challenged the ideology of expansion. Continue reading →