It has been my custom to read for half an hour before drifting off to sleep at bedtime.

However, last night in reading Robert Wright's article in the June 15 Time Magazine edition, "De-Coding God's Changing Moods", I was so horrified with the very first paragraph that I couldn't have a peaceful sleep all night long.

I read more than once Robert Wright's first paragraph, which both startled and deeply depressed me.  Wright wrote as follows:

"The ancient Israelites got straightforward guidance from scripture on how to handle people who didn't worship Israel's God, Yahweh, 'You shall annihilate them -- the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebsuites -- just as the Lord your God has commanded.'"