A victim of the Lord's Resistance Army
Photo Credit: ABC Nyheter

Before I continue let me say that the Quran is not a Holy Book ¹; it is only Muslims and clueless infidels who consider that military handbook a sacred writing.

In my article The Myth that not all Muslims are Terrorists, I made the following statement in regard to Islamic extremists: "Only one terror group justifies their atrocities by quoting their Holy Book."

In the comment section reader Sariah disagreed with me:

The Lord's Resistance Army seeks to create a government based on the law of the Ten Commandments. Furthermore, from here:

Green quoted one of Kony’s aides, Moses, say: “Kony is a messenger from God! We follow the commands of the Holy Spirit!”

Moses continues to explain Kony’s reasoning: “If someone has done something bad to you, you have to kill them!”
“Go and read in Matthew, chapter what and what, it is stated that if your right hand causes trouble, cut if off! It is there in the Bible!”

(That quote is "And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast [it] from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not [that] thy whole body should be cast into hell. -- Matthew 5:30"

I responded:

Sariah. There is a big difference between the Quran which directly tells Muslims to cut the hands and feet of the unbelievers and which they follow exactly, and the LRA which takes a verse which is written metaphorically and twists it to mean they can cut off someone else's hands. That is to say, there is nothing in the Bible commanding a Christian to go find a non-believer and cut off his hands or to kill him. You mention that the LRA wants a government based on the Ten Commandments yet they rape, murder, kidnap, and exploit children as sex slaves in exact opposition to the Ten Commandments. What has that got to do with the Ten Commandments? That they say Matthew, Chapter what and what, shows they haven't a clue what they are repeating.

Suppose the LRA said they want a government based on the US Constitution yet disobeyed every single principle this country was founded on, would you then condemn our Constitution as barbaric? Would you even pretend that the LRA was truly basing their government on our Constitution? Obviously not - you'd have to admit that their pretense is empty rhetoric and without any basis in reality.

The LRA merely says they follow the Bible, but the truth is, their actions contradict what they quote.

Matthew 5:30 does not say to cut off the limbs of enemies. And certainly no sane Christian would actually gouge out his own eyes or cut off his own hands reading this. It means that it is better that you sacrifice those things most dear to you rather than commit sin, but only meant metaphorically, it is after all a mortal sin to mutilate your body. That the LRA misuses this line to excuse atrocities does not mean the Bible is being quoted, it is being misquoted or the quote is a fabrication. On the other hand when Islamists quote the Quran, they are not twisting any meanings, they are not taking metaphors literally, they are not twisting the intentions, they are acting correctly on direct, unambiguous, clear instructions.

When I said, give me an example of a group quoting their Holy Book to justify their actions, I meant [a] quote that actually justified their actions. The LRA might just as well be quoting from a J.C. Penney's Catalogue. No intelligent person would agree with you that they are actually obeying what they read.