I have sympathy with Marcion but it seems very important to include these kinds of stories in the scriptures simply because this is who we are, this is how we actually do live, how human culture is formed and how the social other forms us. We cannot grapple with that which is swept under the rug; it has to be in the light. In the story of Abraham and God stretching him into a new way of receiving the blessing as gift rather than achievement offers me one more doorway into this new way of receiving our identity from God who likes us just as we are. It challenges me to believe that God’s love for Abraham would not be any less if he had sacrificed his son. We are all trapped in the same games and each one of us is invited to offer our violent mimetic selves to God for transformation.