When we believe that the Bible really is the inspired word of God, we approach it with a certain mindset that does weird things to our thinking abilities, namely shutting them off. Due to this cognitive bias, we blindly accept that whatever we read in the Bible--no matter how bizarre, outrageous or non-sensical--must be there for a good reason, even if we don't or can't understand it. The fault of course is ours, not the Bible's, and most certainly not God's!
When we read accounts where God or Jesus said or did things that seem wrong to us, we convince ourselves that they knew what they were doing and it MUST be right, even if we can't understand how or why. Again, this is due to our predisposed way of forcing interpretations on the Bible narrative a certain way that induces cognitive bias. BTW, it is important to keep in mind that cognitive biases usually lead to deviations in judgment and are in fact perceptual distortions, inaccurate judgments, illogical interpretations, or what may broadly be called irrationality. This is not good.
But once we entertain the notion that maybe--just maybe--the Bible is NOT the inspired word of God, then an amazing thing happens: The proverbial scales fall from our eyes and we realize that there's some pretty crazy stuff in the Bible.
I'd like to launch this discussion by discussing crazy stuff that Jesus said or did. Maybe in the future we could get to Old Testament insanity as well, or perhaps you'd like to start your own spin-off thread. Knock yourself out!
I'll get the ball rolling with one of my favorite weird statements attributed to Jesus. This is the one that really got the whole control-freakery thing going, at least as far as Christianity is concerned:
John 15:14 - Y OU are my friends if YOU do what I am commanding YOU .
Nice! Just do what I say and we'll all get along fine.
Any wonder so many "Christian" churches turn into cults. This verse is Cult 101.
Now it's your turn. Please, share your favorite crazy thing that Jesus said or did.