I appreciate the article. I respect anyone willing to wrestle with tough subjects "out loud" and in front of thousands of witnesses.

An evangelical scholar who wrestles with this is Paul Copan. Those interested can read "Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God." He's written other books on the subject too, but that's the only one I've read. One of his theories that he puts out there as a possibility is the fact that scribes in the ANE often used hyperbolic language. It's seen in some of the literature from the nations surrounding Israel. Copan says it's not surprising that some of that same style may be in the Bible. It's an intriguing possibility.