view of him as capable of giving remarkably violent laws. God actually stooped to giving these violent laws. I can agree with this perspective up to the point that the accommodating activity ascribed to God does not conflict with the self-sacrificial, nonviolent, enemy-embracing love of God revealed in the crucified Christ. But insofar as any divine portrait is not consistent with this revelation, fidelity to Christ compels me to see it not as an accurate depiction of something God actually did,