Christians: Do you follow the teachings of your religion, DESPITE all the bloodshed it has caused?

Question

Throughout its history, cruelty—both to self and others—has been one of the most prominent features of Christianity. From its very start, Christianity, with its bleak view of life, its emphasis upon sexual sin, and its almost impossible-to-meet demands for sexual "purity," encouraged guilt, penance, and self-torture. Today, this self-torture is primarily psychological, in the form of guilt arising from following (or denying, and thus obsessing over) one’s natural sexual desires. In earlier centuries, it was often physical.

Given that the Bible nowhere condemns torture and sometimes prescribes shockingly cruel penalties (such as burning alive), and that Christians so wholeheartedly approved of self-torture, it’s not surprising that they thought little of inflicting appallingly cruel treatment upon others.

At the height of Christianity’s power and influence, hundreds of thousands of "witches" were brutally tortured and burned alive under the auspices of ecclesiastical witch finders, and the Inquisition visited similarly cruel treatment upon those accused of heresy.

Answer 1

The Inquistion (Let’s Begin)
The Inquisition (Look out sin)
We have a mission
To convert the Jew (Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew)
We’re gonna teach them (Wrong from right)
We’re gonna help them (See the light)
And make an offer that they can’t refuse.
(That the Jews just can’t refuse)

Confess…Don’t be boring
Say yes… Don’t be dull
A fact… You’re ignoring
It’s better to lose your skullcap than your skull (Or your gavalt)

The Inquisition (What a show)
The Inquisition (Here we go)
We know you’re wishing that we’d go away
But the inquisition’s here and it’s here to stay

The inquisition (Oh boy)
The inquisition (What joy)
The inquisition (Oi oi)

I was sitting in a chapel I was minding my own business
I was listening to a lovely Hebrew mass
Then these papus person’s plungered
And they throw me in a dungeon
And they shoved a red hot poker up my ***
Is that considerate?
Is that polite?
And not a tube of preparation H in sight.

I’m sittin’ flickin’ chickens
And was lookin’ thru the thickens
When suddenly these guys break down the walls
I didn’t even know them
And they grabbed me by the scrotum
And they started playing Ping Pong with my balls
Oy the agony
Oy the Shame
To make my privates public for a game

The Inquisition (What a show)
The Inquisition (Here we go)
We know you’re wishing that we’d go away
But the inquisition’s here and it’s here to…

Hey Torquemada
What do you say

I just got back from the auto-da-fé ,
auto-da-fé What’s the auto-da-fé?
It’s what you oughtn’t to do but you do anyway.

Skit scat doodlebac doodle be bay

Will you convert….NO NO NO NO
Will you confess….NO NO NO NO
Will you revert….NO NO NO NO
Will you say YES….NO NO NO NO

Now I asked in a nice way
I said pretty please
I bent their ears
Now I’ll work on the knees

Hey Torquemada
Walk this way
We got a new game you might want to play
Pull this handle, try your luck
Who knows Torque, You might win a buck (All right)

Put it in the car
In the car In the car

How we doing. Any converts today?
Not a one Nay Nay Nay
We’ve flattened their fingers
We’ve branded their buns
Nothing is working
SEND IN THE NUNS

The Inquisition (What a show)
The Inquisition (Here we go)
We know you’re wishing that we’d go away
So come on all you heathens and you Jews
We got some good news for all of yous
You’d better change your point of views today
Cause the inquisitions here and it’s here to say.

Answer 2

I do not believe that the "witch burning" or the Inquisition, were God's Will. People are flawed and they have all too often taken what they want from religion and made it into something it is not.

I have faith in god's existance and that He cares for me. I believe He wants me to respect others and not judge them. In the NT Jesus talks about the sanctity of Marriage, which I agree with. I do not believe He spoke of homosexuality at all. I do not see how God wanting us to save sexual relations for a loving marriage is a terrible thing.

God gave us that sexual desire to use in a loving way. I have no idea where you got the idea that Christians "so wholeheartedly approve of self torture"...to start we are not all the same and secondly that is absurd.

Answer 3

You should not judge a world view by those who abuse it.

Killing is NOT a logical outworking of the teachings of Jesus. It would be an erroneous interpretation of his teachings. Jesus was willing to die for his enemies, not kill them.

Jesus condems cruelty in many areas in the Bible, so I do not understand how you can say that "Given that the Bible nowhere condems torture" is even a "given". It is not a given...

I would also categorically reject the notion that Christianity has a "bleak view of life" as you say. It has a realistic view of life, that human nature is corrupt, and that an external agency is required for salvation.

In terms of the straw-man arguments that you are trying to portray as logical outworkings of Christianity in terms of mistreating others and torturing one's self, I would have to state that you do not have a solid graps of what Christianity teaches. Try reading Romans 7 and 8 together... This will give you a concise view of the nature of man and the sweetness of the mercy shown in justification by grace through faith in Christ.

If you are going to indict world views as you say, then I think it would be fair to indict atheistic world views in terms of looking that the 10's of millions of people slaughtered just in the 20th Century alone. Killing can be (not MUST be), a logical outworking of an atheistic philosophy, where man is nothing but sentient dirt, waiting for oblivion, and tying up valuable resources that a stronger person could take from...

Under Christianity, life is sacred, created by God, in the image of God. I would agree that the Church has many disgraceful episodes in its history, but you are also only presenting the negative, and you are not including any of the acts of charity, kindness, people devoting to and often giving up their lives for others that have run throught church history.

I am sorry, but your question is loaded with factual errors, mischaracterizations and straw-man positions.

Answer 4

are you an american despite the genocide of native americans, slavery of african peoples, false imprisonment of japanese and other atrocities? are you spanish despite the murders of the spanish inquisition? are you english despite the rape of other countries, murder of scots and irish people? are you muslim even though thousands were slaughtered in 9/11, women subjected to torture and slavery?

i'm willing to bet that no matter where you come from or what religion or nonreligion you embrace, you would stand by your country, religion or atheism, in spite of its history.

wake up! history is being created each day - what's in the past is meant to be a warning, a cautionary tale, it doesn't have to be your reality today.

people like you, mistake Christianity for some sort of prison - you always have a choice. so, if you support sexual impurity, you believe in rape, unwanted babies who grow up to be abused or abandoned, single mothers who struggle to support children, pornography, and the objectifying of women. for all your bleating, i notice you don't offer an alternative to these ugly situations caused by "natural sexual desires".

Answer 5

Do you believe mathematics is a good thing? Math has been used to help invent things which kill men:
ballistics
rocketry
nuclear physics and the atom bomb...

What about all of the poor imbeciles who can't add 2 + 2 and get 4? Is math invalid because of this?

Tom

Answer 6

Let's say that you and I are both hindus.

If you go on a killing spree, am I responsible for it because we're the same religion? Of course not.

You can't blame the christians of today for what their predecessors might have done yesterday.

Also, most of those people weren't witches.

Answer 7

Just another putz who, for whatever reason and no matter how many times it gets posted in here, cannot grasp the reality that it was NOT Christianity which did any of this, but the vatican-backed catholic "church" that committed all the atrocities.
When will so-called "intelligent" people, regardless of belief or non-belief, get this FACT straight in their "minds" and make the crucial distinction that history demands they do?

Answer 8

Actually, the answer is in your question. If "following the teachings of your religion" for the Christian means just that-following the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Apostles as detailed and presented in the New Testament, and NOT that of a denomination or church-then bloodshed, torture, and cruelty would be the LAST things you'd see. Jesus, upon being asked what the greatest commandment of the law was, answered:" You shall love the LORD your God with all your soul, and with all your mind.... And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." He further taught " ..But I say to you, do not resist him who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, let him have your coat too. And whoever shall force you to go one mile, go with him two...But I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be the sons of you Father who is in heaven..." Hmmmmmm...nothing about cruely, shedding innocent blood, or inquisitions in there, now was there? The apostle Paul teaches:"Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves the other has fullfilled the law. For this, 'You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet', and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfullment of the law." In terms of sexual behavior, yes, the Bible does teach purity in sexual behavior, abstinence outside of marriage, and faithfulness within marriage. Difficult at times, yes. Impossible, no. To the Christian God promised to give the Holy Spirit to indwell, empower and guide to live the type of life that the Christian should; and yes, that DOES involve struggle, and sometimes saying "No" to what we may want to do at the time. This is not "guilt, penance, and self-torture"-this is simply called self-discipline, which is necessary to apply in generous amounts if one is to acheive anything worthwhile in this life. Nothing of value-such as acheiving a Christlike character-or, if I judge correctly by your picture, building a championship physique-comes easily. How did such pure moral imperatives become so corrupted? Battling false ideas and practices attaching themselves to-or supplanting-the faith is as old as Christianity itself. Again, this from the apostle Paul; " Be on guard for yourselves and for all...I know that after I leave you savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them." And then he adds this revealing item:" For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not suprising if his [Satans] servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness...". When you seek to identify who Gods followers, authentic Christians-see if their general behaviour matches that of Jesus and the apostles, and their imperatives. Because I can tell you this right now-the spirit of inquisition, cruely and torture is not of Jesus Christ-it originates elsewhere.

Answer 9

Attila the Hun no known religion that I am aware of did quite a bit of torturing and murder where is his credit. when rome was late on their payment to him he decideed to kill ordinary citizens who had no control over his payment. not only religions waged wars. pretty much everyone did. either over land, water, money, food. so when you throw stones feel free to throw one at yourself. or at least your ancestors. and I have never killed anyone. and not so sure what you mean by self torture but I do not feel I have ever tortured myself. I have a set of guidelines I follow as do you but is that torture no don't think so. you must feel you torture yourself when you get angry and cannot just kill the other person. or how about when you speed and get pulled over why do you use self torture and not just keep going? you obviously have issues over my beliefs in sexual ideas why feel free to do as you see fit. why are you worried about how religions conduct their sexuallity. it sounds as though you want to push your ideas on me.

Answer 10

Wow, you sound like a sad confused person. Christianity is your way to an ETERNAL life, there is no other way. I have never been tortured and have tortured no one else. Our history is full of these kind of acts, Christian or not. None of us are perfect in our thinking or actions.