Why do Christians preach Love and Peace?....BUT....?

Question

christians preach love and peace, "thou shall not kill" etc. But christians infact have killed more than anyone else in history. List of victims:
1. 6 million jews
2. War in Vietnam, killing vietnamese, invading their land.
3. Slavery of blacks.
4. Iraq
5. Colonizing, Wiping out races such as Australian Aborginals
6. Native americans
7. Apartheid in South africa.
8. Colonizing in other countries.

Nothing offensive; just answer it.

Answer 1

Everyone can't be as perfect as you

Answer 2

no offense, but you're just using Christianity as a scapegoat, which really takes no effort. it takes no effort to say "the church did it", but lets see who really executed these crimes....

1. Hitler. Not all who bear the Cross or who cry Abba, Father, are God's people. The Bible says this, and Hitler never claimed he was doing God's will.

2. America and its allies. This was an international conflict, not related to religious issues.

3. I'd rather not say who (what people) actually started slavery. but I will tell you it was the thirst for the expansion of an empire that caused it, not the church.

4. American conflict. Again, not for religious reasons. Bush may have called upon God, but that doesn't mean God wanted him to send the troops to war.

5. Australian Aboriginals are still around today. Colonization was started in Rome in the B.C. era. Other daughter countries adopted this idea and an empire race began. not for religious reasons, but for power.

6. European settlers. with the expansion of empires came the need to claim land and the sttlers took the wrong approach. some tribes, even considered a race, were wiped out, but again, this was imperialism, not religion.

7. Racists have existed since the dawn of genetic variance. when Ham's kids looked darker, they didn't like Japheth's kids or Shem's kids or vise verse vise versa, so they formed a race. then when people were comfortable with "their own kind" they took genetic pride to far and we have the racism we have today.

8. Imperialism, not Christendom.

honestly, is this how some people think? that just because some of the pople involved were "Christians" that it's a Christian fault? Next you'll be telling me all Muslims are responsible for the world trade center. geez! stop using scape-gaots. blame the individuals, not the associations.

Answer 3

1. That was Hitler, and while he may have CLAIMED to be Christian, "By their fruits ye shall know them".
2. No Church participated in that, that was a civil war at its root, and the UN intervened because it thought there was an element of stopping Communism in it.
3.The Church had nothing to do with that
4." " " " " " " ".
5.Some "Christians" did those things but not all Christians condone them.
6.Same.
7.Who even knows if those in South Africa who started Apartheid took Christianity seriously?I would say obviously they didn't, since they treated other people that way, but I'm sure there are some who would say the Bible provided for such treatment of "lesser races" because it provides for slavery in the original wording of the Ten Commandments.
8. Colonizing other countries could be explained and condoned in some people's minds by the fact that Christians are commanded by Jesus to spread Christianity.

Answer 4

1. If you're referring to early Europe, that was largely political. If you're referring to the 1900s Hitler was a pagan, and considered Islam to be a superior warrior's faith. Although he also considered Arabs to be subhuman.

2. This was a political and not a religious action.

3. Slavery was quite common until recently (like the last hundred years or so) and it was Christians who raised an objection to it in the western world, including in the U.S. Contrast that with the attitude in Japan regarding Korean comfort women, or current practice in the Sudan. Neither of them are influenced by Christianity. In one case, the influence is rabid nationalism and in the other, Islam.

4. This again is a political and not a religious action. The majority in Iraq wanted to be rid of Saddam. The current conflict is due to infighting between Muslim factions, each claiming to have the true faith. In case you hadn't noticed, that true faith isn't Christianity.

5. Migrating and exploring peoples colonize or attempt to. They are exterminated or absorbed by the indigenous peoples. Otherwise they absorb, exterminate or displace the indigenous peoples. How this is done reflects an understanding or adherence to Christian ethics. The fact that it occurs has nothing to do with Christianity, and has been practiced by those of other faiths or those with none at all.

6. See 5.

7. See 5.

8. See 5.

Answer 5

>>All religions/peoples are at one time or another guilty of this type of behavior. Did you know that many of the battles have been fought by using tactics learned from the Torah?? Should I judge Jews for teaching others how to wage war??Of course not. Nor should I consider all Christians guilty of what you list above. With the exception of the first, I would assume that there were Christian, Jew, atheist, etc. involved in those wars/battles. The New Testament mirrors what was in the Old Testament so I am not sure where you are going with that. If we want to talk about a religion of aggression we should not be talking about Christian or Jew.

Answer 6

Because they feel that they need to spread the message like missionaries in a way. People are not always welcoming to these people on the mission for all sorts of reasons, maybe because they already have a religion the strongly live for, people sacrifice themselves for their religions which Christians do not do. There are a lot of doubts about the Christian religion for me even though I continue to follow it. But I wonder the same thing, people fighting over pretty much stories "different stories" but the same god. It is god to Christians and Alla to Muslims but they continue to fight, and over what? It makes no sense to me at all why such hippocracy exists in such a great religion followed by millions-billions of people worldwide. Look at the discipline people have with different religions, I admire the monks in tibet, they seem to have a grip on things.

Answer 7

I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ and His teachings. Hitler was not.

Many people fought in the war in Vietnam. Christians and non-Christians. As well as in Iraq.

I own no black slaves. I don't know any Christians who do.

I wasn't involved with Australian Aboriginals, Apartheid in South Africa or Colonizing in other countries. Probably, because I wasn't among the missionaries who brought Christ to them.

I am part Native American.

Answer 8

These were acts of economy and dynastic power not religion. Actually the single largest killer in history would be Athieism (Stalin and Mao, 70 million and 60 million and then Hitler who was a professed atheist as well.)

1. 6 million jews (also 5.5 Million Catholics, orthodox and other Christians were killed in Hitler's death camps. Not a religious war as all traders regardless of race, religion, or color were consider "Jew" which just meant traitors to the Reich like the November Criminals )

2. War in Vietnam, killing vietnamese, invading their land. (Hmm many many religions involved here, also it was a civil war! there has never even been any religious connections made)

3. Slavery of blacks. (Christianity also started the abolition movement in the Angleican Church of England)

4. Iraq (Again many religions. Also not a religous war)

5. Colonizing, Wiping out races such as Australian Aborginals (dynastic)

6. Native americans (dynastic)

7. Apartheid in South africa. (Dutch Church officially kicked out of the World Council of Reformed Churches and the World Council of Churches when it began supporting Aparthied and were declared non-Christian)

8. Colonizing in other countries. (what religion hasn't done this....should we discuss the Occupied territories, the war of 67, Lebannon, Syria, etc, etc)

Answer 9

Christian are preaching love and peace ecc. because Jesus preached these things and they follow him...
Nobody can deny the opposite things that christians have done in the name of Jesus. But I don t think that we should criticize christianity because of this. There are christians who really believe in this love and peace and act like that.
What I want to say is that if the believer of a religion acts in a bad way it is not fair to criticize the religion or dogma ecc...
Your question made me think lots of things so I will post a question.
Oh! And refering to the question, my opinion is also that the followers of Jesus were really believing in this "universal love, christian love ecc.". But what happened then?
Most of the people who were prosylitised in christianity where slaves, poor people, and so on. The christian empire(byzantine) was believing in the gods of romans or greeks(not sure) and poor people were converting to christianity. The army was consisted by the poor people. Because of this, they wouldn t want to go to war or fight. So, the clever emperor made christianity the official religion. Now, they had a reason to go to war without feeling bad. They could fight for their christian nation, for the love ecc...(even if it is antifatic!)

Answer 10

Thou shalt not kill is an incorrect translation. It should be "Thou shalt not murder".
1- Hitler did this along with his men. They weren't christians.
2- This was a war by politicians again not necessarily christians.
3- Slavery of blacks was because of greed. It was christians who were moved by "All men are created equal" that helped abolish slavery, i.e. Quakers.
4- For the sake of argument, there is weapons of mass destruction, then it is reasonable to defend oneself.
5- Perhaps England rather than christians.
6 Native americans enjoyed fellowship with the pilgrims, hence Thanksgiving. It was the ones that were filled with greed and fear that destroyed the relationships with the indians.
7.8. Again greed.
It's one thing to attack christian philosophy and another to attack christian people who deviate from the philosophy.

Answer 11

Hitler was a member of the fascist party who's four pillars were anti-Semitism, anti-liberalism, anti-communism, and anti-Christiansm. This I got from Colliers Encyclopedia copyright 1962. Have some Christians done some rotten things sure. But I always wonder why people fail to mention in their short tenure in power Communists (under the banner of official atheism) killed 42 million. That's quite a number in a relatively short blip in history. This important fact is conveniantly left out when attempting to berate Christians. But I guess I shouldn't expect much in here as there seems to be enough who consider the cartoon south park as a legitimate news source.