Doesn't Christianity have a beautiful history?

Question

Quote, "The First Crusade was launched in 1095 with the battle cry "Deus Vult" (God wills it), a mandate to destroy infidels in the Holy Land. Gathering crusaders in Germany first fell upon "the infidel among us," Jews in the Rhine valley, thousands of whom were dragged from their homes or hiding places and hacked to death or burned alive. Then the religious legions plundered their way 2,000 miles to Jerusalem, where they killed virtually every inhabitant, "purifying" the symbolic city. Holy man Raymond of Aguilers wrote: 'In the temple of Solomon, one rode in blood up to the knees and even to the horses' bridles, by the just and marvelous judgment of God'."

Answer 1

During the campaign against the Albigensian "heretics", when the troops of the Church had surrounded a town, the Prelate-General conducting the assault, after ordering the deaths of all non-Catholics, was asked, "My Grace, how shall we tell the faithful from the heretics?".

The commander's answer was, "Kill them all and let God sort out their souls."

But then, past Christian atrocities pale in comparison to those being committed on a daily, world-wide basis by Muslims today.

Answer 2

You forgot to mention that the first Crusade began because the Muslims were invading Istanbul who sent a cry for help to the Christian world. The Crusaders were not religious leaders but knight and their followers who had very little understanding of the world outside their small provinces. You also forgot to mention that the majority of Europe was not forced to Christianity by the sword. You also forgot to mention that the Muslims did as bad or worse to the people they conquered before the Crusades.

Although the killing was bad you might want to remember that Europe began to grow during and after the Crusades. Had they not occurred you'd be under Islam law right now and you'd be reading by lamp light not working on a computer.

Answer 3

The renagade Monk who lead the "Shamefull Crusade" was wrongfully given the blessing of the Pope at that time. You never know what a person is going to do until they do it. I believe the first five crusades were lead by the Anglicans and the last three (this is without looking it up) by the Catholic Church. Look up why the Anglican Church was started... it was so King Henry can get a divorce and other reasons. Thomas Moore was killed by the King because he told the King it wasn't a good idea to break away from the Church.

If someone from your school becomes a serial killer, does that mean your school is evil?

Sonfae... the Catholics (the original Christians) were around almost 1400 years before the other Christians came about. Learn your history. Look up 'Martin Luther' or the 'Reformation'.

Answer 4

Every religious movement has embarrassing and bloody incidents in their history if you go back far enough. Don't forget, it was not like the crusades were unprovoked; the crusades were an European counter-attack in response to Muslin invasions of former christian lands. The Europeans were literally fighting for their lives. Every war has its share of horrible acts committed by all sides.

But I doubt that you are a serious student of history, and you probably don't care about the truth.

Al this simply proves that Christians are right about humans being born sinful.

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...So what is the truth about the Crusades? Scholars are still working some of that out. But much can already be said with certainty. For starters, the Crusades to the East were in every way defensive wars. They were a direct response to Muslim aggression—an attempt to turn back or defend against Muslim conquests of Christian lands.

Christians in the eleventh century were not paranoid fanatics. Muslims really were gunning for them. While Muslims can be peaceful, Islam was born in war and grew the same way. From the time of Mohammed, the means of Muslim expansion was always the sword. Muslim thought divides the world into two spheres, the Abode of Islam and the Abode of War. Christianity—and for that matter any other non-Muslim religion—has no abode. Christians and Jews can be tolerated within a Muslim state under Muslim rule. But, in traditional Islam, Christian and Jewish states must be destroyed and their lands conquered. When Mohammed was waging war against Mecca in the seventh century, Christianity was the dominant religion of power and wealth. As the faith of the Roman Empire, it spanned the entire Mediterranean, including the Middle East, where it was born. The Christian world, therefore, was a prime target for the earliest caliphs, and it would remain so for Muslim leaders for the next thousand years.

With enormous energy, the warriors of Islam struck out against the Christians shortly after Mohammed’s death. They were extremely successful. Palestine, Syria, and Egypt—once the most heavily Christian areas in the world—quickly succumbed. By the eighth century, Muslim armies had conquered all of Christian North Africa and Spain. In the eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks conquered Asia Minor (modern Turkey), which had been Christian since the time of St. Paul. The old Roman Empire, known to modern historians as the Byzantine Empire, was reduced to little more than Greece. In desperation, the emperor in Constantinople sent word to the Christians of western Europe asking them to aid their brothers and sisters in the East.

That is what gave birth to the Crusades. They were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope or rapacious knights but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two-thirds of the old Christian world. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense...

Answer 5

Why, yes, Christianity has a beautiful history.

Starting in Rome, we were persecuted by the hundreds and thousands, yet when Rome collapsed the Church moved in and became the strong central authority that kept the peace, relatively. They kept alive ancient writings which otherwise would have been totally lost to history, possibly forever. They developed these ideas, and came out with concepts like "personhood."

Then after a thousand years of "birth pangs" (incorrectly called the "dark" ages) there was the Scientific Revolution, which was the result of Christian ideals on how God is a logical God and so we, being made in His image, can figure out His logical creation. Just look at all the founders of science: not the least of which was the great Isaac Newton, who was so religious he wrote a book on interpreting prophecy in Daniel. Gregory Mandel, a monk, first figured out genes. To say nothing of the Church funding tons of early scientists, including Copernicus.

Then we have Absolutism, the "divine right of kings," which took power from the nobles and allowed for the growth of the first legitimate middle classes from the peasants. It provided the foundation of capitalism, which today provides most of the world's wealth.

Then Absolutism's doctrinal enemy, the limited government model, first put forth by Samuel Rutherford, a theologian, in his book "Lex Rex"; and then copied by John Locke. From John Locke it jumped to...the Founding Fathers of the United States, which today is the richest country, the strongest country, and the country which contains most of the world's infrastructure. To say nothing about all the charity and medical help it gives around the world.

In Lex Rex and John Locke there came forth the idea of "equality of men," citizenship, individual rights and liberties, and the notion that government, being responsible to God, exists to protect those rights. All of these things come from the concept that Jesus died for all men, so no man is to be elevated higher than another. Before, government was despotism. Now, government is accountable.

Then let's look toward slavery. In the Middle Ages slavery died out. When Darwinism came along, enslaving black people became acceptable, because they were thought "lower" races, almost animals. Christians, the first true modern Evangelicals like Wilberforce and Equiano, and Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," were the crusaders who attacked this inequality and won.

In short, Christianity is responsible for preserving history, founding science, developing capitalism, equality, individual rights, limited government, and ending slavery.

I think we have a beautiful history. Just because some people got Jesus' message wrong doesn't mean the message itself is wrong.

Answer 6

You didn't take your story far enough. In the Dark Ages (roughly 1000 - 1500AD) many people who were declared heretics were tortured. This was a good way to get rid of your enemies. Jews were tortured till they converted or died.
This was the Catholic Church which is the parent of the Protestant Church. Back then the only Christians were the Catholics. I'm a Protestant Christian, but I think the Catholic Church has cleaned up their act fairly well.

Answer 7

Christianity has a horrible history.
Men have committed atrocities in the name of God.
Separate man's acts of inhumanity to man from True Christian faith, and you might see the underlying beauty of a belief in Jesus.

Interestingly, the terrible events that occurred as Christianity spread are nothing at all compared to the events that mark the spread of Islam.

Answer 8

First I'd like to say that Sonfai 81 should have his membership revoked. He just makes ingnorant comment after ignorant comment. It's getting out of hand.

Second, all of these things don't actually have anything to do with religion. I can speak for Christianity/Catholicism in saying that nowhere in our religion does it teach anything remotely close to what you're refering to. What these people did was because of their own human nature. You can't blame God or religion, for the stupid things that humans do. Just because I do something in the name of God or religion doesn't mean that my God or religion necessarily approves of what I'm doing. Besides, there are plenty of people from other organizations, religious and non-religious, that do similiar things. You have to look at what the organization teaches before you start blaming it for what there members do. As Chrisitanity/Catholicism, does not teach or advocate violence in any way, you can't blame it. Blame human nature.

Answer 9

Yeah good thing the rest of humanity maintained a spotless record. No wars or anything. No Christian is better than any other person and any that claim they are are misguided and ignorant. The point of Christianity is top point out that JESUS is better, not Christians. How many of those horrible events was Jesus involved in?

Answer 10

My god's better than your god...............
i love the earlier posts distancing christianity from catholicism, as if catholicism wasnt the birth of christianity for the first 1450 years, lol.
Jewish history so sweet
Muslim history so sweet
The crusades, the inquisition, to make a believer proud
"religion is the opiate of the people" ( no not from Luther!, Marx)