The Scourge of Christianity and the Need for Christian Humility

[angellous_evangellous]

Christianity is guilty for many sins in its 2,000 year history, but I want to meditate on one in particular, that should rank among its unquestionably evil acts: murder.

Historically, Christianity has been the religion of death rather than life: there must be something inherently inhumane and dysfunctional about a religion that can be exploited for evil in every generation and almost every form.

In the West, Christians have murdered each other en masse, and Christian leaders (both religious, like Popes and pastors) have used Christianity as an argument for war / motivation to kill and die in wars. This is not an accident of the majority of the people being Christian, because every aspect of Western life has been Christianized - the conquering of the indigenous peoples, industrialism, capitalism, nationalism, and terrorism.

In fact, I would venture to predict that as long as a majority of Americans are Christian, the world is not safe from aggressive American wars. As Christians, the capital ventures of America that rely on the oppression of other countries is considered a divine right, and soldiers do good when they kill anyone who threatens it.

Jesus isn't the answer, Christian, Jesus is the problem. A significant problem that creates very real threats for the poor, innocent, and weak.

Before you tout Jesus as an answer to anything, consider how much damage Christians have done (and this is not a comprehensive list):

- Christians slaughtered each other in Europe for hundreds of years (Catholics and Protestants)
- Christians perpetrated genocides in the New World to secure its resources (both in North and South America)
- Christians slaughtered each other to secure that wealth (the Revolutionary and Pre-Revolutionary Wars)
- Christians enslaved African Americans and wrote the Constitution in a way that purposefully ensured that slavery would last indefinitely in the USA
- Christians slaughtered each other by the thousands to preserve slavery
- Christians slaughtered each other on a then unprecedented scale in WWI
- Christians developed and supported the Nazi final solution
- Christians killed other Christians in WWII
- A Christian President is the only person who dropped an atomic bomb
- A Christian President illegally started two wars of aggression, costing more than a million lives, fought by a largely Christian military, and openly supported by evangelicals

You are recruiting other people into this bloody legacy.

So at least show some humility.

 

[George-ananda]

I am not buying into this anti-Christian rant. These things in the OP just sound like the history of civilization's evolution; religious and secular. To call it 'Christian' is disingenuous. It sounds more like people acting unchristianly to me; no new revelation there.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

I am not buying into this anti-Christian rant. These things in the OP just sound like the history of civilization's evolution; religious and secular. To call it 'Christian' is disingenuous. It sounds more like people acting unchristianly to me; no new revelation there.

So you don't think that it's a problem that the next Republican president can use the evangelical right to promote a theological justification for an aggressive war in Iran? It's a large group of Americans that can be very easily manipulated - and it's exactly what George W. Bush did to gain support for his wars.

 

[George-ananda]

So you don't think that it's a problem that the next Republican president can use the evangelical right to promote a theological justification for an aggressive war in Iran? It's a large group of Americans that can be very easily manipulated - and it's exactly what George W. Bush did to gain support for his wars.

Wow, you jump subjects fast. I have never heard of a theological justification for an aggressive war in Iran.

Dude, I now remember talking to you on RF before. Why such hostility? Slow it down and you won't be looking for hostility everywhere.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Wow, you jump subjects fast. I have never heard of a theological justification for an aggressive war in Iran.

Dude, I now remember talking to you on RF before. Why such hostility? Slow it down and you won't be looking for hostility everywhere.

I guess you're not in the USA -- or at least you're sequestered from evangelical Christian culture? It's called "just war theory" and Christians have used it as a theological justification to murder innocent people since Augustine (about the fourth century CE).

And theological justification for war is precisely on topic, because it's the religious motivation for killing - and it's the reason why it's significant that Christians kill each other and people in general as a religious act (or at least a religiously sanctioned act).

 

[Unveiled Artist]

It is true; and, people will take offense. Here are my thoughts.

Like it or not (to all) Christianity has influence in many murders. In my county, they have made many businesses shut down because they disagree with those buss. product of sales. Pagand, santeros, either are remote, hide their views behind secular churches like UU, and masks their stores because the Cburch feels santeros practice witchcraft.

They have a hand in how people think of who is different than they are. It is not a christian rant. It is a fact AND that does not mean christianity only in and of itself is wrong, it means it influences people to do things against their will.

Many people are killed over religion. (Thinking of other countries).

Its not meant to be taken personally. Its a fact: look on the international channel, read the paper, read history books, read Leviticus and Joshua.

Death is part of the faith. Dont believe me? (To all not the OP)

Take Jesus death. God could have saved humanity by hundreds of other ways than death. Saints have sacraficed their lives for Christ who would do that today?

The Buddha valued life. He taught sacrifice by Service and deeds not by taking a life. He brought ways to save others by showing by not showing people can save themselves.

Why do people need a human sacrifice for THEIR sins not Jesus'. Muslims dont make a human a sacrifice for their sins nor do Jews.

A lot of it is political before Church and government split. America was a protestant state and still is. Britian, if I remember by history, was Catholic. Americans separated themselves for many reasons, religion is one. Now we have the politics of Catholicism influencing our government via freedom of religion.

Is it bad? No. If Catholics (etc) do not force their faith on others, it is fine.

Life has a balance. We grow. We have to accept the negative in our faiths just as the positive. Buddhism has its blood shed. So does Muslism. I dont know about the lattee, but the former I dont hear people in temples trying to convince people their faith is the only way to live. Many buddhist sects are not evangalistic.

What I am saying does NOT mean Jesus and His faith is wrong. It just means that the facts behind the religion created in His name has a lot of negativity behind it. I do not believe thst is what Jesus intended.

Why cant christians see this, I dont know.

Good post, OP. I would shift point of view or tone to not offend believers.

Christianity is guilty for many sins in its 2,000 year history, but I want to meditate on one in particular, that should rank among its unquestionably evil acts: murder.

Historically, Christianity has been the religion of death rather than life: there must be something inherently inhumane and dysfunctional about a religion that can be exploited for evil in every generation and almost every form.

In the West, Christians have murdered each other en masse, and Christian leaders (both religious, like Popes and pastors) have used Christianity as an argument for war / motivation to kill and die in wars. This is not an accident of the majority of the people being Christian, because every aspect of Western life has been Christianized - the conquering of the indigenous peoples, industrialism, capitalism, nationalism, and terrorism.

In fact, I would venture to predict that as long as a majority of Americans are Christian, the world is not safe from aggressive American wars. As Christians, the capital ventures of America that rely on the oppression of other countries is considered a divine right, and soldiers do good when they kill anyone who threatens it.

Jesus isn't the answer, Christian, Jesus is the problem. A significant problem that creates very real threats for the poor, innocent, and weak.

Before you tout Jesus as an answer to anything, consider how much damage Christians have done (and this is not a comprehensive list):

- Christians slaughtered each other in Europe for hundreds of years (Catholics and Protestants)
- Christians perpetrated genocides in the New World to secure its resources (both in North and South America)
- Christians slaughtered each other to secure that wealth (the Revolutionary and Pre-Revolutionary Wars)
- Christians enslaved African Americans and wrote the Constitution in a way that purposefully ensured that slavery would last indefinitely in the USA
- Christians slaughtered each other by the thousands to preserve slavery
- Christians slaughtered each other on a then unprecedented scale in WWI
- Christians developed and supported the Nazi final solution
- Christians killed other Christians in WWII
- A Christian President is the only person who dropped an atomic bomb
- A Christian President illegally started two wars of aggression, costing more than a million lives, fought by a largely Christian military, and openly supported by evangelicals

You are recruiting other people into this bloody legacy.

So at least show some humility.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Why such hostility?

Because I think that it's wrong that George W. Bush murdered a million people and American churches helped him do it, and they arrogantly think that their Christianity is a good thing.

 

[Thanda]

I guess you're not in the USA -- or at least you're sequestered from evangelical Christian culture? It's called "just war theory" and Christians have used it as a theological justification to murder innocent people since Augustine (about the fourth century CE).

And theological justification for war is precisely on topic, because it's the religious motivation for killing - and it's the reason why it's significant that Christians kill each other and people in general as a religious act (or at least a religiously sanctioned act).

So people look for excuses to kill each other. What's new!

 

[angellous_evangellous]

It is true; and, people will take offense. Here are my thoughts.

Two things really bother me about the topic -

1) No generation of the church has been spared from adopting a theology that justifies killing - and the consequences have been very severe.

2) There must be something inherently wrong with Christianity if it can be exploited so easily.

In my opinion, this is a very significant issue, particularly in the campaign season for another American president. Christians need to prepare for political leaders to exploit their weaknesses - whatever we name the weakness - and not be swept away into the deadly cycle again.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

So people look for excuses to kill each other. What's new!

It's the delusion that God blesses it that concerns me.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Here are my thoughts.

I'm also more than a little upset that American Christians like to get upset about issues like gay marriage, suggesting that the world will fall apart, when they happily supported American wars of aggression, and political parties in America are gearing up for the next one - and those Christians are ripe for the picking.

 

[Augustus]

Christianity is guilty for many sins in its 2,000 year history, but I want to meditate on one in particular, that should rank among its unquestionably evil acts: murder.

Historically, Christianity has been the religion of death rather than life: there must be something inherently inhumane and dysfunctional about a religion that can be exploited for evil in every generation and almost every form.

In the West, Christians have murdered each other en masse, and Christian leaders (both religious, like Popes and pastors) have used Christianity as an argument for war / motivation to kill and die in wars. This is not an accident of the majority of the people being Christian, because every aspect of Western life has been Christianized - the conquering of the indigenous peoples, industrialism, capitalism, nationalism, and terrorism.

In fact, I would venture to predict that as long as a majority of Americans are Christian, the world is not safe from aggressive American wars. As Christians, the capital ventures of America that rely on the oppression of other countries is considered a divine right, and soldiers do good when they kill anyone who threatens it.

Jesus isn't the answer, Christian, Jesus is the problem. A significant problem that creates very real threats for the poor, innocent, and weak.

Before you tout Jesus as an answer to anything, consider how much damage Christians have done (and this is not a comprehensive list):

- Christians slaughtered each other in Europe for hundreds of years (Catholics and Protestants)
- Christians perpetrated genocides in the New World to secure its resources (both in North and South America)
- Christians slaughtered each other to secure that wealth (the Revolutionary and Pre-Revolutionary Wars)
- Christians enslaved African Americans and wrote the Constitution in a way that purposefully ensured that slavery would last indefinitely in the USA
- Christians slaughtered each other by the thousands to preserve slavery
- Christians slaughtered each other on a then unprecedented scale in WWI
- Christians developed and supported the Nazi final solution
- Christians killed other Christians in WWII
- A Christian President is the only person who dropped an atomic bomb
- A Christian President illegally started two wars of aggression, costing more than a million lives, fought by a largely Christian military, and openly supported by evangelicals

You are recruiting other people into this bloody legacy.

So at least show some humility.

How many of these things were done by people who were Christian and how many were done by people because they were Christian?

Christianity has a bloody history no doubt, but most of these things listed were not done because people were Christian. Correlation is not causation.

What would be on your list of events that were a direct result of Christianity?

 

[angellous_evangellous]

What would be on your list of events that were a direct result of Christianity?

All of them.

 

[AnnaCzereda]

2) There must be something inherently wrong with Christianity if it can be exploited so easily.

Or, perhaps, there is something inherently wrong with human nature. Humans have been killing each other from time immemorial, regardless of a religion. The progress of civilization only makes killing easier, more sophisticated and large-scale. Did Genghis Khan have an atomic bomb at his disposal? If he'd had, who knows if we would be posting on this forum now...

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Or, perhaps, there is something inherently wrong with human nature. Humans killed each other from time immemorial, regardless of a religion. The progress of civilization only makes killing easier, more sophisticated and large-scale. Did Genghis Khan have an atomic bomb at his disposal? If he'd had, who knows if we would be posting on this forum now...

Of course I agree, but I will also note that people haven't been able to exploit other religions as they have Christianity.

 

[Thanda]

It's the delusion that God blesses it that concerns me.

People have used God, ancestors, family honour, science, race and all kinds of excuses to kill each other. This is not a case of weakness in Christianity. This is about human weakness.

 

[Jainarayan]

and those Christians are ripe for the picking.

Hitler, 1939. Deja vu all over again. Scary thought.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Hitler, 1939. Deja vu all over again. Scary thought.

Yes - but that it has already repeated several times since Hitler is really troublesome. There have been a few genocides committed by Christians in the name of Jesus -- thank God not all of the genocides since Hitler have been Christian -- but it should be obvious that we haven't learned our lesson.

 

[Thana]

Christianity is guilty for many sins in its 2,000 year history, but I want to meditate on one in particular, that should rank among its unquestionably evil acts: murder.

Historically, Christianity has been the religion of death rather than life: there must be something inherently inhumane and dysfunctional about a religion that can be exploited for evil in every generation and almost every form.

In the West, Christians have murdered each other en masse, and Christian leaders (both religious, like Popes and pastors) have used Christianity as an argument for war / motivation to kill and die in wars. This is not an accident of the majority of the people being Christian, because every aspect of Western life has been Christianized - the conquering of the indigenous peoples, industrialism, capitalism, nationalism, and terrorism.

In fact, I would venture to predict that as long as a majority of Americans are Christian, the world is not safe from aggressive American wars. As Christians, the capital ventures of America that rely on the oppression of other countries is considered a divine right, and soldiers do good when they kill anyone who threatens it.

Jesus isn't the answer, Christian, Jesus is the problem. A significant problem that creates very real threats for the poor, innocent, and weak.

Before you tout Jesus as an answer to anything, consider how much damage Christians have done (and this is not a comprehensive list):

- Christians slaughtered each other in Europe for hundreds of years (Catholics and Protestants)
- Christians perpetrated genocides in the New World to secure its resources (both in North and South America)
- Christians slaughtered each other to secure that wealth (the Revolutionary and Pre-Revolutionary Wars)
- Christians enslaved African Americans and wrote the Constitution in a way that purposefully ensured that slavery would last indefinitely in the USA
- Christians slaughtered each other by the thousands to preserve slavery
- Christians slaughtered each other on a then unprecedented scale in WWI
- Christians developed and supported the Nazi final solution
- Christians killed other Christians in WWII
- A Christian President is the only person who dropped an atomic bomb
- A Christian President illegally started two wars of aggression, costing more than a million lives, fought by a largely Christian military, and openly supported by evangelicals

You are recruiting other people into this bloody legacy.

So at least show some humility.

Why?
I, personally, haven't done anything wrong.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Why?
I, personally, haven't done anything wrong.

You just posted something completely irrelevant.