God's Warriors? God's Name Taken in Vain

God’s Warriors: Christian, Muslim, Jewish. You might think the world has trouble enough from the ungodly without fanatics making war in God’s name. God can’t be pleased.
“God’s Warriors” is the three-part Christiane Amanpour series that’s been running -- and rerunning -- on CNN. Ms. Amanpour is fair and balanced in her treatment of the three extremist groups, not to mention more generous to them that they deserve. Whether it’s the Muslim, Jewish or Christian segment of the investigative series, the “warriors” show themselves to be self-interested posers pretending to do God’s work without the slightest idea of who God really is. But their threatening presence casts its dark shadow on the Middle East and the peace summit now being championed by U.S. Secretary of State Condalezza Rice. Crossing them can be punishable by death.
I’ve watched enough of Ms. Amapour’s series -- it’s hard to stomach for long periods -- to know all three groups share the same problem: they’re dedicated to “God’s word” instead of to God. Each group confuses the “sacred documents” of their particular faith with the infinite wisdom that is the true word of God. And because they fail to seek God’s heart, they misunderstand their documents
I know I’m not going to cure this ill. The problem has corrupted all the Middle Eastern or Semitic religions -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- from the beginning, mostly out of a desire to enforce orthodoxy. The greater the certainty the “word” is absolute revelation, the easier the task of enforcing orthodoxy. And it seems to follow as day does night that “God’s Warriors” emerge from the most constrained and orthodox branches of their respective faiths. The one thing they share is a divine belief that they are right and the other guy isn’t.
The Judeo-Christian religions have been as guilty as our Islamic brothers in substituting devotion to religion for devotion to God. In his sixth chapter the prophet Hosea speaks a truth repeated often in the Hebrew scriptures: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offering.” Jesus repeats this sentiment in the New Testament. Accused of lacking devotion to the Torah in his attitude toward the Sabbath, Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Just read the scriptures for God’s sake! You can’t miss it: God intended us for love not war. How sad God must feel to hear a phrase like “God’s Warriors.” Could God’s name possibly be taken more in vain?