Do you find yourself wanting to be Christian when you learn of how many "good Christians" condoned...

Question

The persecution of women?
The Crusades?
The Inquisition?
The burning of 'witches'?
The pogroms against the Jews?
Enslavement of Africans, to be bought, bred and sold like livestock?
The war against China to force China to allow "good christians" to sell opium to the Chinese?
Apartheid?
Naziism and the Holocaust?
The wrongful imprisonment of Japanese-Americans?

Do you find yourself wanting to embrace a religion that condoned all of the above?

Kingdom Child: "Can't point a finger of criticism toward others without it also pointing back to yourself in some way." I'm not sure I understand what is expected of nonbelievers against the power of the church (especially the medieval church of the crusades). Nonbelievers are not organized around a faith that proclaims Love to be the principle tenet. Nor can it be said that nonbelievers suffer from hypocrisy with respect to their professed faith (and bear in mind I would not accuse all Christians of that either, there are many who carry out their faith true to the original source).

And I would not suggest that nonbelievers are off the hook for making things better.

But the activities I've listed were condoned by men (mostly) who studied the Word night and day...professional religionists whom you would expect to know better. In the days before TV and radio, people spent far more time with their religion, and likely understood it better than the average Christian of today. YMMV

Answer 1

NO... But they will chant, those are the other Christians; they aren't the REAL Christians....

OK, so will the real Jesus please stand up, so we can have a clear view here?

Answer 2

How about we turn the question toward another religion?

"Do you find yourself wanting to be a Muslim when you learn of how many "good Muslims" condoned..."

The persecution of women (which continues today in conservative Islamic nations... at least the Christians got enlightened and embraced women's lib)

The Crusades (the Muslims turned right around after the Christians took Jerusalem and conquered it right back)

Terrorist activities to defeat the "infidels" (while I disagree with the "war" in Iraq, that doesn't give Iraqis the right to shoot or bomb our troops there... using that logic, Americans should shoot and bomb anyone here illegally)

Christianity is no different than any other organized religion, really. There are people who are extremely conservative. There are people who are extremely liberal. They all do things that seem counterintuitive to the religion. But you can't single out Christianity and say that they alone are hypocrites, because there are hypocrites in every religion.

Answer 3

Those were not "Good Christians" that condoned any of that. Those were people with personal motives. Definitely not representitive of the Church of Christ.

If I pick up an axe and run into a crowd killing dozens of people, while at the same time yelling, "I'm doing this in the name of Jesus!!!" that does not mean that Jesus sent me to do it. That means I had a personal agenda and was trying to put blame elsewhere.

Similarly, if I get a group of guys together and attack Cuba while flying the American Flag....do I honestly represent the United States Government? I don't think so.

Answer 4

I am not defending the fundamentalist religious fanatics because they are idiots. Still, you cannot blame all the billions of believers of a 2000 year old worldwide religion for all the horrible atrocities committed in the name of God, or by some of the people who also 'belong" to that religion.

Answer 5

Those are not examples of "good Christians." Those are people who were misled because of beliefs and customs of their time, and hatred that was taught to them by their ancestors, for whatever reasons. That is no reason to knock a whole religion because of what a few hypocritical or misinformed people did centuries ago.

Answer 6

Excellent question.

No I don't want to be Catholic cause there always on one wrong tract or another.

Right now Women are being criticized for not being "old-timey" enough and staying home to raise babies.
I guess the "old-times" where women were beated and raped, without recourse are better for the vatican than freedom for all.

which is why I http://flushaholybook.com

Answer 7

No, I don't. The only good thing I can think of about being a Christian is that I could sleep easy knowing all those evil, murdering jerks were burning in Hell.

Answer 8

You don;t throw the baby out with the bath water, and you don't condemn a whole religion for the insanity of a few.

Answer 9

Nope. Those events are evil.

I embrace Christianity dispite the fact that many of its adherants are obviously capable of terrible violence in the name of God. In fairness, a pretty extensive list could be compilled of selfless acts of love by Chrisitans in God's name as well, but let's not do this tit for tat, it would just go on and on.

The point is that reaching out to embrace the gospel of Christ does not automatically produce a holy individual. The process of becoming who God intended you to be is just that - a process ...and unfortunately we are not so great at trusting, especially trusting without tangible proof and especially when it means giving up control how our lives will be lived. Even Jesus in the garden, just before his arrest, begged the Father to spare him from the ordeal that lay ahead ("If it is possible, may this cup pass from me"). But he had the capacity for trust and love of the Father that allowed him to immediately follow that plea with "but not as I will... may thy will be done." How many humans in this life have you or I met that could have come anywhere close to this level of trust? I have met...hmmm...zero.

Yet I have met plenty of people who come much closer than I do. It is my faith in the story of Jesus...His life...His messasge...that fuels my attempts to trust more and more of myself to the transforming power of love - not the love of human reasoning that says that what we do for one another is in our own best interest if you see the grand interconnectedness of us all. But a truly radical love...a dangerous, selfless love...a love that could one day cause me to reach out to someone who wishes me ill, who might destroy me - and yet knowing that possibility reaching out anyway for love's sake. That's the kind of love that Chrisitanity offers and that the world needs. Its the kind of love that will ultimately heal the people and the planet - whether I benefit from it or am not here to see it. I hope that Christians will pray for the courage to trust God with our lives...to pray for that transformation that allows us to show what God is really like (hey, Christians - that's what it means to bring glory to Him!Talk is cheap...actions are what the world is watching), because you are absolutely right in pointing out many reasons for thinking God is anything but a God of love!

This is a challenge for not only the professing Chrisitans and for the instititions that have twisted the message or at least lost sight of the main focus, but for all of you nonbelievers of goodwill everywhere. Can't point a finger of criticism toward others without it also pointing back to yourself in some way.

Peace to you,Bobkgin, and to all who take the time to read this.

Answer 10

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. ~ Steven Weinberg, Freethought Today, April, 2000

Answer 11

Look deeper.

I don't embrace the people, I don't worship the people who did these things.

People who claimed to do these things for God, well if you were to read your bible, you would see this is not God...this is NOT Jesus, It is humanity, at its sinful worst!!!

They will receive/or have received what ever they have coming to them. God knows their hearts....however blackened they may have been....or mislead.