Determining who is and who isn’t is a dangerous exercise.

Michael Carden, in preparing to write on Joshua in The Queer Bible Commentary, attempted to give the book of Joshua a second chance.  That is, he sought to find in it something other than warfare, bloodshed, massacre and genocide.  His conclusion:  “I found that the main concern of Joshua was community and identity, who is and who isn’t Israel.”  More specifically, Joshua informs readers of “who constitutes Israel, including the question of whether Israel is to be defined only by residency in the land of Canaan.”  Joshua, according to Carden, surprisingly rejects that definition.  Noting “there remains no archaeological evidence for either an invasion from the outside or even a peasant revolt within Canaan” Carden surmises that Israelites and Canaanites are one and the same.

Aren’t we all one and the same?

Doesn’t tribal identity, yes tribal obsession, make warfare, bloodshed, massacre, and genocide easier?

There is one and only one tribe:  human being.

Too many people try to divide the world, including Christians sure of who is saved and who isn’t.